Demos protest GOP cuts in children's health plan

By MOLLY PRIDDY
Community News Service
UM School of Journalism

HELENA – Democratic lawmakers went on the offensive Monday, blasting Senate Republicans who recommended cuts last week in proposed funding for the voter-approved expansion of state-funded children’s health care.

“This is a travesty,” said Sen. David Wanzenried, D-Missoula. “I’m outraged about this.”

In a press conference held on the rotunda steps, 25 members of the Progressive Democratic Caucus, led by Sen. Christine Kaufmann, D-Helena, lambasted the GOP decisions to cut government services during a recession.

“These are irresponsible and cowardly actions,” Kaufmann said. “Will we choose pavement over peoples’ lives?”

The decision to cut the expansion for the Healthy Montana Kids Plan came late Friday night as the Republican-controlled Senate Finance Committee recommended cutting $120 million out of the state budget bill, House Bill 2.

Of that savings, $50 million would come from scaling back the Healthy Montana Kids Plan, according to Sen. Dave Lewis, R-Helena.

Lewis said expanding any program during a recession is dangerous for state finances, even if the federal government promises to match the state’s dollars, as it does in the children’s health insurance program.

“You still have to have the match,” Lewis said during the budget hearing. “You can go broke at a clearance sale.”

The health care expansion has been a contentious issue this session. After being approved by more than 70 percent of voters in November, the Legislature needed to grant funding authority before the program could expand to cover an estimated 30,000 uninsured Montana children.

However, Republicans in both the House and Senate have said the state can’t afford to expand that program during this economic crisis. They also said voters in November didn’t know the expansion’s true costs.

Democrats disagreed.

“Republicans said we didn’t know what we were voting for,” Kaufmann said. “Yeah, right.”

Wanzenried said that because state-funded health insurance is one of benefits of being a legislator, maybe those perks should be reduced as well.

“Half of the people in the Legislature who oppose funding it should give (up their insurance), don’t you think?” Wanzenried said.

But Senate Finance and Claims Chairman Keith Bales, R-Otter, said the budget decisions were not cuts but actually reduced increases.

“We think that it is important that the state not spend more than they’re taking in during the biennium,” Bales said. “In this time when we are faced with problems on funding, we thought it would be prudent to phase (Healthy Montana Kids) in.”

Bales also said he believes the reductions do reflect the views of the voters today. He said Montanans were more optimistic about the economy in November than they are in today’s recession. He also said he was confident the reduced expansion will still help children in need.

“If a person gets laid off or has trouble, their children will automatically qualify for CHIP,” Bales said. “The people that do need health insurance for their children will get health insurance for their children.”

As approved by voters, the expansion would have offered health coverage for children whose parents earned 250 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $50,000 for a family of four. Bales said that providing state-funded health insurance for families making $50,000 is not a priority.

The Senate amendments in HB 2 still expand the Children’s Health Insurance Plan and Medicaid, but only for those who earn 200 percent of poverty level.

In addition to recommending cuts in CHIP, Bales’ committee also voted to reduce state spending by 2 percent across the board for state agencies and use more one-time stimulus money to fund education.

Senate Republicans look to trim House budget

HELENA –The House had barely approved its $8.1 billion version of the state budget yesterday when key Senate Republican leaders began talking about ways to cut it.

“(The budget) is not structurally balanced,” said Sen. Keith Bales, R-Otter and chairman of the powerful Senate Finance and Claims Committee. “It was my hope it would’ve come out of there more balanced.”

Bales, whose committee is scheduled to hold hearings on the budget next week, said the House budget doesn’t account for about $41 million in project revenue shortfalls. The money will have to be cut from somewhere, he added.

“It will come from multiple places,” Bales said. “There is not one place that we can easily reach out and grab that money.”

Bales said Senate Republicans don’t have specific plans for budget cuts but he has a few ideas of his own. He said the committee will consider trimming the base funding for education, human services, corrections and general government. That would help the next Legislature build a balanced budget if revenues don’t improve.

“I certainly do not want to build government in the face of a recession,” he said.

Bales said he expects cuts across the board, but that it is premature to talk about specific cuts when he hasn’t vetted his ideas yet.

However, his vice chairman, Sen. Dave Lewis, R-Helena, said he wants to consider cutting $35 million in funding for the Healthy Montana Kids Plan, a voter-approved plan to offer health insurance to some 30,000 uninsured children.

Republicans tried but failed to cut that money earlier in the House. Lewis said he would like to remove it again because implementing any large new program right now is a bad decision.

“I’m not done looking at it,” Lewis said. “I’ll be bringing it up again.”

Lewis also said he would like to spread some of the stimulus money for infrastructure projects to rural areas. “I think there’s a concentration in the highly populated areas,” Lewis said.

Both Lewis and Bales said the Legislature needs to get the stimulus money out to Montanans quickly to create jobs and help right the economy.

However, Lewis also conceded that any budget decisions the GOP-controlled Senate makes will have to be made without alienating the Democratic administration.

“We’ve always got to be thinking of how we can package this so the governor will sign it,” Lewis said.

-by CNS correspondent Molly Priddy

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

Lawmakers trim proposed health care spending

HELENA – The House Appropriations Committee took its first bite out of the budget Wednesday as it chopped over $15 million from the Department of Public Health and Human Services's spending plan but purposefully avoided making final decisions to hold out for children’s health-care funding.

Committee Chairman Jon Sesso, D-Butte, said he was pleased with the initial steps made toward a structurally balanced budget.

“We made some progress today in trimming the section,” Sesso said. “Our goal is to move toward structural balance of House Bill 2.”

Although the cuts were initially approved by the committee, final decisions were saved for the end of the week. Sesso said they left this section open to see if other parts of the budget could be trimmed enough to implement the Healthy Montana Kids Act, which expands the Children’s Health Insurance Plan and Medicaid coverage.

The CHIP expansion was voted down by Republicans earlier this session because of overspending fears, and the Republican attempt to trim expenses was killed by Democrats.

Sesso said he hoped by trimming other sections of the state budget, Republicans would see there is enough room to fund the $30 million, voter-approved health-care expansion.

“If we can make progress in other programs relative to need in structural balance, we can address Healthy (Montana) Kids,” Sesso said.

Even so, Sesso said the committee made progress by cutting over $15 million from the budget.

The committee cut the state’s $10 million overtime and holiday pay obligation and decided to fund it through the stimulus package. They also expected a $2.4 million boost in federal money for child support enforcement.

They also decided to cut Medicaid-funded organ transplants, which cost the state $2 million, as well as five jobs in the DPHH director’s office.

An area of contention was an 11-9 vote to shut down a $900,000 autism program in Bozeman. The program offers a group home for four autistic children. Rep. Penny Morgan, R-Billings, said the budget should not fund this program, because it was created outside of the Legislature’s authority.

“If the department wants to continue with these programs, I think it’s up to the department to find money in their budget,” Morgan said. She said the department should be held accountable for circumventing the Legislature’s power.

Sesso said Morgan was right to be concerned about the department’s actions, but the program should not be punished.

“It would be unfortunate if this particular service to these four children in what is an otherwise commendable program suffers because of our collective concern about the department following legislative intent,” Sesso said.

Other representatives agreed the department needed to be penalized.

“If not this, when?” said Rep. Walter McNutt, R-Sidney. “If it isn’t here, where are you going to draw the line in the sand?”

Several amendments died on party-line votes, including one that would fund current CHIP levels if the expansion is not approved by lawmakers. Rep. Dan Villa, D-Anaconda, said the bill would be a move away from fully funding the expansion.

“We were directed by a 70 percent vote to fund the Healthy Montana Kids initiative,” Villa said. “Not pro-rate it – we were told to do it.”

Another amendment to die on party lines would have provided $10,000 to Head Start programs. The final failed amendment would have provided a $4 million-base budget for non-Medicaid funded aging services, such as Meals on Wheels.

The Appropriations Committee will discuss education on Thursday and they hope to finish trimming the  state budget by the weekend.

-by CNS correspondent Molly Priddy

Republicans worry about costs of CHIP expansion

HELENA – Republican fears about costs and "socialized medicine" colored today's debate over a bill to extend health-care insurance to thousands of additional uninsured Montana children.

House Bill 157, sponsored by Rep. Chuck Hunter, D-Helena, would provide startup funding for the Healthy Montana Kids Program, a voter-approved initiative that expands eligibility for the Children's Health Insurance Program and Medicaid coverage to children of low- and moderate-income families.

The bill won initial approval by a 57-41 vote, but some Republicans argued that it was a poor fiscal decision.

“I have a really hard time with this,” said Rep. Tom McGillvray, R-Billings (pictured). “This has nothing to do with children. If you want to take one more step toward socialization, vote for this bill.”

House Speaker Bob Bergren, D-Havre, said McGillvray’s comments were proof that some House Republicans “might be out of touch with the people in Montana.” Voters approved I-155, the initiative that created Healthy Montana Kids Program, in November.

But Rep. Bob Lake, R-Hamilton, said he wasn’t sure Montanans would have voted for it if they knew it would cost $2.6 million to start up.

HB 157 would allow the Department of Health and Human Services to use money set aside in a special revenue fund to implement I-155. The initiative aims to cover 29,000 of Montana's estimated 30,000 to 34,000 uninsured children.

-by CNS correspondent Molly Priddy