Blasdel discusses Medicaid proposal

Halfway through the legislative session, House Speaker Mark Blasdel, R-Somers, is pleased with the progress that’s been made during his fourth term.

“We’ve gotten a lot of good bills over to the Senate,” said Blasdel, who’s made only one trip home since the session started. “We’re pretty happy with where we’re at.”

The Legislature reached the halfway point on Feb. 28.

One of the more talked about pieces of legislation this year has to do with whether or not Montana will buy into the Medicaid expansion that is part of the Affordable Care Act. Rep. Pat Noonan, D-Ramsey, proposed such a bill (HB 458), but Blasdel opposes it.

“If we expand, then the state has to pay a component” beginning in 2017, Blasdel said. This would involve the state getting into an agreement with a partner — the federal government — that is $16 trillion in debt, he said.

Blasdel said that if such legislation gets through the Senate, it will not get through the House.

“You’re putting the taxpayers at risk for a ton of money,” he said, estimating it would cost the state between $100-200 million over future years. “The amounts keep changing because they don’t know how many people would be covered,” he said.

Blasdel believes that the people who would be covered under any Medicaid expansion could also get subsidized health insurance through a new federal health care exchange that is being created as part of the Affordable Health Care Act.

The state of Montana decided in the 2011 legislative session to not give the state auditor the authority to create a state-run exchange, Blasdel said.

Blasdel believes that any able bodied person who makes $11,190 or more per year — up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level — will be eligible to go to the federal health insurance exchange and get a 100 percent federally subsidized tax credit that can be used to purchase insurance. Those who make between 200 and 400 percent of the poverty level would be eligible for a less-than-100 percent subsidy, Blasdel said.

“It will be all federal money and the state is not on the hook long-term,” he said.

The federal government would pay for 100 percent of the Medicaid expansion from 2014-16, which would decline gradually to 90 percent by 2020.

Blasdel said that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker “cut Medicaid and is putting all those people on the exchange,” and noted that South Carolina is headed in that direction too.

Others, including former Rep. Mike Jopek, D-Whitefish, have said that a doughnut hole would be created for those who make between 100 and 138 percent of the federal poverty level if Montana turns down the Medicaid expansion. These people wouldn’t be able to get the federal subsidy, Jopek stated on his website, mikejopek.org.

For his part, Blasdel hasn’t sponsored much legislation. His only bill thus far was a joint resolution that states that Montana supports trade with Taiwan, which he said “is one of our top trade partners for wheat, barley and grain.”

Blasdel explained that Taiwan has a new visa program that they expect will increase travel abroad. The bill (HJR 12) “is a big deal to them,” he said, noting that former Gov. Schweitzer’s firing of Montana’s trade delegate to Taiwan “put us in a bad position with them.” He noted that Taiwan’s trade delegation plans to visit Montana next month.

Blasdel said he hasn’t introduced much legislation because there’s so much involved in the administrative part of being House Speaker.

“It’s easier to get other legislators to work on legislation, and I just try to usher it through the process,” he said. “When the leadership carries legislation, it becomes more political.”