Nearly 300,000 Montanans, including 128,000 children, rely on Medicaid for their health care coverage. Nearly 2-in-3 businesses have an employee who is covered by Medicaid, making it a critical support for Montana’s small businesses and entrepreneurs who can’t afford to compete with big corporations on worker benefits. Medicaid keeps our families healthy and our economy running, so why are we choking it with new red tape?

Because that’s what’s happening right now–unnecessary bureaucracy is growing in Medicaid, not shrinking. During the last session of the Legislature, Montana Republicans pushed forward legislation that requires Montanans to continuously prove their eligibility for Medicaid– every few months, you must report your income to the state government, despite the fact that you already told them when you signed up for Medicaid and you’re already required to reapply every year like everyone else with insurance does. Montana Democrats fought against these new requirements, but the Republicans were dead set on adding additional superfluous red tape to one of the state’s largest and most critical insurers.