
Montana Healthcare Foundation Slams Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’
Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - Now that President Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ has passed the U.S. Senate, there are still concerns that healthcare benefits for many of America’s poor families will be lost.
Recently, I spoke with Aaron Wernham, CEO of the Montana Healthcare Foundation, who shared his views on the President’s bill.
CEO of the Montana Healthcare Foundation is Not a Fan of the Big Beautiful Bill
“Congress is looking for ways to pass a lot of policy changes, trying to lock in some tax cuts at the same time as reducing federal spending,” began Wernham. “One of the sets of proposals they're looking at is some changes to how the federal government funds Medicaid, which is a major source of coverage for Montanans. So we just looked at what these policies in the House Bill would look like if they were implemented in Montana.”
Wernham said the bill would significantly affect Montana families who depend on Medicaid.
Wernham says The Bill Will Hurt Montanans in the Health Care Field
“The Montana Healthcare Foundation exists for the purpose of improving the health of Montanans, and we know that having health insurance is a really important fundamental part of being able to do that,” he said. “So in our state, Medicaid has covered well over 200,000 Montanans. And the Medicaid expansion program, which covers lower-income adults, covers somewhere near 80,000 people.”
Wernham shared some alarming numbers of individuals and families who would be negatively affected, or even lose their health insurance.
Wernham Says Some Families May Lose Their Health Insurance
“Most of these are people who are working, or people who have a serious illness or are in school, or have another reason that they can't work full time,” he said. “These policy changes would likely cause a significant share of those people to lose insurance. So we're estimating, and again, these are just estimates, but we estimate roughly 31,000 current enrollees would lose coverage under these policies, and that includes about 27,000 adults and about 4,000 children and people with disabilities, and people who are older adults (in Montana).”
Wernham said the Montana Healthcare Foundation will be watching the U.S. government’s actions closely.
He Said the Montana Healthcare Foundation Will Watch the Bill CLosely
“We'll be tracking any serious proposals that that come out in the Senate with the focus on Medicaid, because a big part of our focus is health insurance for people who previously didn't have a good source of coverage; people who are low income, working hard and trying to make ends meet.”
According to the foundation’s website, ‘The Montana Healthcare Foundation is a 501(c)3 private foundation that makes strategic investments to improve health in Montana. We provide funding, leadership, and expertise to help communities tackle Montana’s most important health problems. We conduct policy analysis so that Montanans can be well-informed and engaged in decisions that impact their health. We prioritize supporting the health and well-being of people and communities at increased risk for poor health outcomes because of income, geographic barriers, the availability and accessibility of health and social services, and health disparities.’
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