Health care looms as key issue in Montana race for House seat
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, Mont. — Meagher County, Mont., may not be much different than the rest of the rural enclaves across America that voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump last fall.
The median annual household income is $38,000 — about 25 percent below the national average. Nearly 20 percent of its 1,800 residents live in poverty. And more than 1 in 4 people don’t have health insurance.
‘Train wreck’ like always
Yet few people in this conservative bastion ringed by prairies, meandering rivers and snow-frosted peaks are publicly complaining about Trump’s push to repeal the Affordable Care Act — an issue that is front and center in a special election Thursday to fill Montana’s only U.S. House seat.
“I think there are some aspects of it that are good, like keeping young people insured and coverage for pre-existing conditions, but some people expect other people to take care of them,” said Barry Hedrick, who owns 2 Basset Brewery and has no qualms about seeing the current law repealed.
“This was going to be a train wreck like every government program that’s come along,” he said.
Despite all their protest, 1 in 8 Meagher County residents are newly enrolled in Medicaid — the government health care program that was expanded to cover the working poor. In all, more than a third of Meagher County depends on state-administered public health insurance programs.
Much of the anti-government rhetoric — particularly against the Obama health care law — has clashed with the need for health care in towns such as White Sulphur Springs.
Rob Quist, the Democrat running for the state’s congressional seat, has focused on how the high cost of health care conspires against Montanans. He supports single-payer health care, such as a Medicare-for-all program, but said the more realistic goal politically is to strengthen the current law.
Current law a lifeline
For much of the campaign, Quist has been dogged by controversy over a financial tailspin that led to three state income tax liens, defaulting on a $10,000 loan and legal clashes over money. He has blamed his debts on medical bills, but critics assert his troubles stemmed from financial irresponsibility.
Meanwhile, Republican Greg Gianforte has suggested repealing and replacing the current health care law while keeping some of its provisions, a tricky position in the state that has 77,000 new enrollees for Medicaid.
The president’s proposed budget released Tuesday would slash more than $600 billion from Medicaid over 10 years. That’s on top of enrollment cuts aimed at saving billions more in the Republican plan that narrowly passed the U.S. House.
The Congressional Budget Office is expected to release its financial analysis of the bill on Wednesday.
Like most of her neighbors in White Sulphur Springs, Carol Berg voted for Trump in November. But unlike many, she doesn’t mind saying the current health care law is a lifeline.
“We have all these preexisting conditions, and we’d never be able to afford insurance,” said Berg, who works as a hairdresser and upholsterer from her home. “I’m 55, and my husband is 60, and we have to have insurance.”
She said the subsidies they got from the law last year helped pay for the medical insurance that covered specialists and surgery after her husband was diagnosed with a rare condition affecting blood flow in his neck. In all, insurance covered about $100,000 in medical bills, she said.
Now they worry that their benefits will be taken away.
“Maybe congressmen should be paid the average wage of their constituents and have to buy their own insurance out of that,” Berg said. “Most of them have no clue what it’s like to be the working poor.”