Montana Measure To Increase SCHIP, Medicaid Would Cost State $20M Per Year

A proposed Montana ballot measure would expand SCHIP and Medicaid enrollment to about 30,000 more uninsured children in the state at a cost of about $20 million per year beginning in 2009, supporters of the measure say, the Billings Gazette reports. Proponents of the measure need 22,308 signatures of Montana voters to qualify it for the November ballot.

The measure would increase the SCHIP income eligibility threshold from families with incomes up to 175% of the federal poverty level to 250% of the poverty level. In addition, SCHIP and Medicaid only would be expanded if adequate federal matching funds were available, according to the measure. The federal government matches about 80% of SCHIP funding and 60% to 65% of Medicaid funding in the state. A fiscal note on a petition to place the measure on the statewide ballot says the initiative would transfer $22 million from the state treasury to finance the expansion.

State Insurance Commissioner John Morrison, a leader of the Healthy Montana Kids campaign, said that the expansion should not take away from other programs and that a budget surplus forecasted for this year should absorb the cost of the measure. In addition, Morrison said that the expansion would generate up to $75 million in federal matching funds.

However, Gov. Brian Schweitzer's (D) budget office said the measure would cost the state $38.5 million over the next two years and $45.5 million for the following two years. The budget office said that increasing the programs "without providing for additional state taxes" would cause a "significant reduction in general tax revenues for other state services" starting in December. Schweitzer said he will not support tax increases.

If the measure is approved by voters in November, the 2009 Legislature still would have to authorize the funding expansion (Dennison, Billings Gazette, 3/18).