Montana Bill to Eliminate Medicaid Assets Test Dies in Senate Committee

Although Montana lawmakers have attempted to push bills through the state Legislature that would "increase access" to the state's Medicaid and CHIP programs, the prospect of any of those bills becoming law now appears "grim," the Billings Gazette reports. One bill (SB 88), sponsored by State Sen. Mignon Waterman (D), would eliminate the Medicaid assets test requirement for pregnant women and children, a move that would have allowed more than 3,000 children and 126 women to qualify, the Gazette reports. But since late February, Waterman's bill has "languish[ed]" in committee and has thus missed the March 24 deadline for transfer to the state House. Furthermore, even if the bill did pass, the Senate Finance Committee had "stripped the money to pay for the proposal," instead allocating it to raise wages for people who work with the developmentally disabled. To receive benefits under the state's Medicaid program, people must have annual incomes of no more than 133% of the federal poverty level, or $23,475 for a family of four, and must have no more than $3,000 in assets, exempting one vehicle. The Gazette reports that if the assets test was removed, many children currently in the state's separate, non-Medicaid CHIP program, which has no assets test, would qualify for Medicaid. Children from families earning less than 150% FPL, or $26,475 annually for a family of four, are eligible for the state's CHIP program. Despite many obstacles, there is still "some hope" that the bill will pass, according to Kate Cholewa of the Center for Policy Analysis and Community Change. To that end, Gov. Judy Martz (R) "has gone on record saying she supports" eliminating the assets test, a position that could provide "the impetus the Senate would need for a two-thirds vote to suspend the rules and revive the bill," the Gazette reports. Another bill concerning the CHIP program is likely to pass -- SB 338 -- which would give the Department of Public Health and Human Services the ability to lower the current annual income limit for the CHIP program below 150% of the federal poverty level (Smith, Billings Gazette, 4/2).