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Medicaid Information
A recent web seminar highlighted the Montana Medicaid program for 2025. All information is from this seminar. Links to information follow.
Some states, including Montana, expanded their Medicaid programs to cover all people below certain income levels. In 2015, Montana's State Legislature expanded Medicaid to cover adults ages 18-64 with incomes up to 133% of the federal poverty level through the bi-partisan Health and Economic Livelihood Partnerships Act (HELP Act).
Medicaid provides health care coverage to Montanans with a low income. Montana Medicaid and Healthy Montana Kids Plus is Montana's health benefits program that provides low-or no-cost insurance to eligible children, pregnant and postpartum women and infants, people with disabilities, seniors and adults with low income.
Montana's intention in making health insurance available to adults with low incomes was to:
1 Expand health care coverage
2 Improve access to health services and health outcomes
(Early treatment supports better health outcomes among Medicaid enrollees. Enrollees visit the emergency room less frequently the longer they have coverage. Free to low-cost health visits to providers are key to long-term health and finding problems before they become crises.)
3 Reduce costs of care and increase State budget savings
Medicaid provides health care coverage to more than one of every five Montanans (approximately 21%). Medicaid is an especially valuable safety net program for children and youth, where nearly two of every five individuals aged 0-18 are covered, (approximately 38%).
Medicaid enrollment by percentage of county population as of year 2023:
Musselshell - 29.9%
Petroleum - 18.8%
The highest percentage is in Glacier - 54.8%.
Medicaid supports adults with low income and their employers. Two-thirds of Medicaid-enrolled adults are employed or in school. More than 34% of all adults who work as maids/housekeepers and 30% of all adults who work as cooks/food service in Montana are enrolled in Medicaid.
The federal government reimburses Montana for approximately 80% of Medicaid spending each year. The cost of Medicaid expansion to the state general fund is about $100M, about a quarter of which is paid by hospitals through utilization fees. Total state general fund spending on Medicaid has remained quite stable since before expansion, ranging between $270M and $320M. 13% of Montana's state general fund spending is for Medicaid.
To continue the current Medicaid program, the State Legislature and the governor must remove the sunset clause or renew the HELP Act program before June 30, 2025.
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