{"id":17470,"date":"2018-11-08T12:46:20","date_gmt":"2018-11-08T20:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/after-midterm-defeat-advocates-for-montanas-medicaid-expansion-turn-to-legislature\/"},"modified":"2018-11-08T12:46:20","modified_gmt":"2018-11-08T20:46:20","slug":"after-midterm-defeat-advocates-for-montanas-medicaid-expansion-turn-to-legislature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/after-midterm-defeat-advocates-for-montanas-medicaid-expansion-turn-to-legislature\/","title":{"rendered":"After Midterm Defeat, Advocates For Montana's Medicaid Expansion Turn To Legislature"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Eric Whitney<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

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\n Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat, warned that failure of a Medicaid-funding initiative on the ballot could make for a tough legislative session in 2019.<\/p>\n

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William Campbell\/Corbis via Getty Images<\/p>\n

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William Campbell\/Corbis via Getty Images<\/p>\n

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A ballot initiative that would have continued funding Montana’s Medicaid expansion beyond June 2019 has failed. But advocates say they’ll continue to push for money to keep the expansion going after that financial sunset. <\/p>\n

“We now turn our attention to the legislature to maintain Montana’s bipartisan Medicaid expansion and protect those enrolled from harmful restrictions that would take away health insurance coverage,” said a concession statement Wednesday<\/a> from Chris Laslovich, campaign manager with the advocacy group Healthy Montana, which supported the measure.<\/p>\n

The initiative, called I-185<\/a>, was the single most expensive ballot measure in Montana history. Final fundraising tallies aren’t in yet, but tobacco companies poured more than $17 million into Montana this election season<\/a> to defeat the initiative. That’s more than twice as much cash as supporters were able to muster. <\/p>\n

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Most of the money in favor of I-185 came from the Montana Hospital Association. “I’m definitely disappointed that big money can have such an outsized influence on our political process,” said Dr. Jason Cohen, chief medical officer of North Valley Hospital in Whitefish.<\/p>\n

The ballot measure would have tacked an additional $2 per-pack tax on cigarettes. It would have also taxed other tobacco products, as well as electronic cigarettes, which aren’t currently taxed in Montana. <\/p>\n

Part of that $74 million in additional tax revenue would have funded continuation of Medicaid expansion<\/a> in Montana. <\/p>\n

Unless state lawmakers vote to continue funding the Medicaid expansion, it’s set to expire. If that happens, Montana would become the first state to undo a Medicaid expansion made under the Affordable Care Act. <\/p>\n