Senators consider expanded funding for CHIP

HELENA – Senators got their first look this week at a bill that would provide start-up money for the voter-approved expansion of children’s health care coverage.

House Bill 157, sponsored by Rep. Chuck Hunter, D-Helena (pictured), would appropriate $2.6 million in special revenue funds to get the Healthy Montana Kids Plan started. The plan would expand coverage under Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

More than 70 percent of Montana voters supported the idea in November when they voted for I-155.

“It was clear Montanans wanted children to have health insurance,” Hunter told the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Safety Committee Monday.

Hunter said the $2.6 million would come from funds that were set aside when I-155 passed: $900,000 from the special revenue account and a $1.7 million federal match for the money. The HB157 money would only fund the expansion through 2009.

Right now, the state has $17 million in a special revenue fund that was set aside for the expansion after I-155 passed. Hunter said the money cannot be used for anything else and will just sit there if Healthy Montana Kids doesn’t get started.

Hunter also said the governor realized that money was being set aside when he created his budget.

“The initiative set aside this money as a particular, dedicated source of special revenue,” Hunter said.

Healthy Montana Kids has been an issue of particular partisan contention this session. Some Republicans have said the expansion is too expensive to fund during the economic downturn and should be put off for two years.

But a deadlock over whether to fully fund the program may have been broken over the weekend when Democrats and Republicans on the powerful House Appropriations Committee decided to include $35 million for CHIP in its proposed budget

The hearing for HB 157 came just before that vote. Senate Minority Leader Carol Williams, D-Missoula, said both bills are necessary to get the money flowing to an estimated 30,000 uninsured Montana children.

“You really can’t spend any money without the statute,” said.

Williams said previous legislative attempts to expand the program failed, so the voters took action.

“I’m not a big fan for initiatives that make decisions for the Legislature on how we spend our money,” Williams said. “Because of the lack of ability of the Legislature to make this happen, I support it.”

“We all know in our heart that his program is a good one,” Williams said. “It’s supported by the people and the money’s there to do it.”

Representatives from the Governor’s Office and the Department of Public Health and Human Services supported the bill, as well as the Human Rights Network, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana, the Billings Clinic and the Office of Public Instruction.

There were no opponents.

At full expansion, the program is expected to cover 29,100 uninsured children in Montana. Representatives from DPHHS said if HB157 passes, children will be enrolled by October 1.

- by CNS correspondent Molly Priddy