Commissioners express support for Medicaid expansion
<p>Denyse Traeder from the Mineral Community Hospital discusses Medicaid expansion on Friday.</p>
Denyse Traeder from the Mineral Community Hospital, as well as other representatives from MCH, were at the regular meeting of the Mineral County Commissioners on Friday to discuss the expansion of Montana Medicaid.
According to Traeder the expansion will create “13,000 jobs across the state” and 70 in Mineral County, resulting in $2.2 million in revenue for the county.
“Really what it means for Mineral County is jobs and revenue and income,” Traeder said. “I think we can all agree it’s needed here.”
According to Traeder, the expansion is “a big deal” and if it was to happen it will add jobs throughout the county not just in the hospital.
“It’s everything from the bar to an administrative position at the hospital,” Traeder said. “One of the places it really affects is our health departments and our public assistance programs – it will ensure that a bunch of people who traditionally have not been able to meet the requirements for Medicaid will be insured.”
Traeder added that the expansion will cover people in the county who are traditionally accepted to the hospital for care but since they cannot afford it the county or other programs have to cover the cost.
Commissioner Duane Simons asked Traeder where the funds to cover medical care for residents who cannot afford it comes from and the question was fielded by George Bailey of MCH.
“Quite a few of the members of our community are not covered with insurance so just to give you an idea of the number we are currently carrying an excess of $660,000 of bad debt,” Bailey said. “We aren’t going to turn away a person and even if we wanted to we couldn’t so we have to absorb it.”
Bailey added that at the “height of the recession” residents would get behind on their bills at the clinics and the hospital would have to absorb those costs as well.
After elaborating on how the costs for uninsured affect not only the hospital but the county as well, Bailey asked the county commissioners if they would be willing to write a letter of support for the Medicaid expansion. According to Bailey many other groups in the state have written similar letters to state lawmakers, most recently the Mineral County Chamber of Commerce.
A discussion was had between the representatives from MCH and the county commissioners prior to the commissioners agreeing to compose and send a letter in support of the expansion.