Please Take Five Minutes to Help Insure Montana's Working Poor

NAMI Montana friends and supporters,

After a lot of back and forth, the Montana Senate passed a bipartisan compromise bill (House Bill 623) to provide a private health insurance option for the working poor who cannot afford health insurance. It was an amendment onto Representative Liz Bangerter’s earlier bill. Republican Senator Ed Buttrey of Great Falls says the proposal the proposal does not expand Medicaid, but rather simply would use the expanded federal Medicaid money starting next year to buy health insurance for thousands of Montanans earning less than 138 percent of the federal poverty level — about $15,400 for a single person.

Here's an article that describes the compromise bill in-depth.

This bipartisan bill will allow Montanans to take advantage of the federal government’s investment in healthcare for the working poor without increasing the state’s long-term investment in Medicaid. Please take a moment to contact Representative Bangerter asking her to approve the amendment to House Bill 623.

Representative Bangerter is in an interesting spot because this was not her original intention for the bill. She is going to need to hear from her constituents and people from across Montana about why this is a good idea. Representative Bangerter is a great person with a huge heart. She’ll really appreciate hearing your thoughts.


Thank you,

matt

UPDATE: Representative Bangerter voted for the bill, but unfortunately it still died on the House floor. Here is a link to an article about the vote.  It's a sad day for Montanans who cannot afford health insurance, but we're truly thankful to legislators like Representative Liz Bangerter who are willing to cross party lines to do the right thing.




Matt Kuntz
Executive Director
NAMI Montana
www.namimt.org

(406) 443-7871

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