Montana state Sen. Becky Beard thought she’d found a fix for a shortage of assisted living care options for Montanans who can’t afford to pay for it themselves — a shortage she became aware of while searching for a suitable place for her mother to live.
Beard, a Republican from the rural town of Elliston, ushered a bill through the GOP-controlled legislature this spring. The proposal would have moved more than 200 people off waiting lists for government-supported care and saved the state money by accessing more federal Medicaid money to cover their costs and the cost of those already in assisted living.
The bill had broad support from assisted living facility owners whose facilities eventually would accept more of these patients covered by Medicaid, the state-federal program that pays medical and other health-related bills for low-income and disabled people. In Montana, the federal government pays about 65% of the cost of most Medicaid-covered services, and the state pays for the rest.
