Health care

Montana’s Medicaid expansion program has officially been renewed. Gov. Greg Gianforte signed legislation Thursday that will keep the existing program in place.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human services is canceling over $11 billion worth of COVID-era grants. Some of those cuts are impacting the state, but it’s unclear how much funding is lost.

It can be hard to get people in a severe mental health crisis the treatment they need. Many times, the only option is the state psychiatric hospital. A bill moving through the Legislature could give communities a faster option closer to home.

Montanans living with severe mental illness are cycling in and out of ERs, jails, shelters and the state psychiatric hospital. Many never get the long-term help they need. One Missoula woman has been caught in that cycle for years. Her daughter uprooted her life to help. MTPR's Aaron Bolton brings us their story and reports on whether proposed reforms to the state mental health system offer them hope.

State health officials are notifying residents of whooping cough circulating throughout the state. Montana has seen a total of 140 cases of the disease since December of last year.

On Friday, roughly 100 veterans gathered outside the state Capitol in part to protest any job cuts at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), which serves nearly 50,000 Montana veterans.

House Republicans passed a resolution calling for the Energy and Commerce Committee to cut $880 billion from its budget over the next decade. But the committee couldn’t meet that target without cuts to either Medicare or Medicaid, according to the congressional budget office. Tens of thousands of Montanans could lose coverage if that happens.

Montanans could face fewer hurdles getting their insurance to cover medications and treatments.

Last year, the United States Surgeon General declared loneliness across the country as an epidemic, going so far as to claim that isolation and loneliness are a higher cause of death than obesity. Hit especially hard by high rates of loneliness are senior citizens across the country.

A bill that would maintain Montana’s Medicaid expansion program is headed to Gov. Greg Gianforte’s desk. HB 245 passed the Senate Thursday.