Monday at the Montana Legislature, Republican Representative Matthew Monforton is proposing House Bill 256. This bill would limit the Governor’s ability to pass administrative rules that would effectively bypass the Legislature in expanding Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.
“They’re trying to foist an expansion of Medicaid by way of unelected officials rather than elected bodies.”
Democratic Representative Pat Noonan tried to pass Medicaid expansion at the Legislature in 2013 and says this bill is a “moot point.”
“Nobody’s trying to bypass the legislature right now, we are in the middle of this discussion as we speak. And if the legislature doesn’t give the authority to the Governor to expand Medicaid, we will not do it.”
Thus far, Governor Steve Bullock’s own version of Medicaid expansion, called the Healthy Montana Plan or House Bill 249, has yet to get out of committee.