An effort to expand Medicaid in Montana died on Tuesday in the state legislature, dealing a blow to a bill spearheaded by the state’s Democratic governor.
The Montana House voted late Tuesday on a procedural measure that effectively kills House Bill 249, which would have expanded Medicaid in the state under the Affordable Care Act. Montana would have been the 30th state to adopt the expansion.
The House voted 59-41 along party lines to reject a motion to halt a committee’s do-not-accept report on the expansion. The vote means the bill will effectively die in the Montana health committee.
Proponents of the bill said that it would give a helping hand to those who desperately need it.
“You don’t need a political manifesto that with a little help more people will break out of poverty,” said state Democratic Rep. Pat Noonan, who sponsored the bill, during a March 6 committee hearing.
Republican state Rep. Art Wittich, who chairs the committee, told the Associated Press he wasn’t convinced that spending “more government money on healthcare is going to fix healthcare.”
Montana Gov. Steve Bullock made a big push to get the expansion passed, saying that the expansion would help 70,000 citizens get covered under the expansion.
