Jason Ellsworth
Good health care is a lifelong need for each of us and has become an important policy issue for all Montanas. Health care is also an area in which the federal government plays a large role, and is somewhat limited in what it can do at the state level.
Nonetheless, Republicans have been able to accomplish a lot of good health care work in recent state legislatures. It is done with three main goals in mind: to provide more options for
On the transparency side, at the last session, the Board further asked the Insurance Commission about the practices of pharmacy benefit managers who have been accused of having opaque practices that have been blamed for significant increases in prescription drug prices. Passed major bills to give insight.
One of the most bipartisan pieces of legislation from the last session was the massive expansion of telemedicine, giving patients access to more healthcare beyond in-person visits. Significantly, it also passed a generational investment in broadband that will improve internet access for tens of thousands of Montanas so that more Montana can access telemedicine.
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It also expanded direct patient care. This allows Montanans to contract directly with service providers without going through an insurance company. While we still need health insurance for unexpectedly large medical bills, expanding the DPC simultaneously accomplishes all three of her Republican-focused goals. This means making prices and services transparent upfront, reducing costs for many everyday medical needs, and now offering patients a whole new range of options. Along the same lines, it also passed laws allowing doctors to dispense many drugs directly to patients, also saving costs and hassles.
In the previous session, we introduced state reinsurance pools to help stabilize the personal health insurance market and make insurance costs more manageable.
In this session, we want to build on all this great work with the same three goals in mind: greater transparency, lower costs, and more options. Several simple bills addressing naturopathic doctors have already had their first hearings in the Senate this week, and more are on the way.
In addition to the key frameworks already mentioned, this session also provides several key healthcare items. We need to strengthen our mental health care system and Warm Springs State Hospital. Another major topic that the House is leading first is addressing nursing home reimbursement rates to ensure Montana’s seniors receive accessible and reliable care.
All of this is a great start and I’m excited to see what more we can achieve on the healthcare frontier this legislative session.
Senator Jason Ellsworth, R-Hamilton, is Speaker of the Montana Senate.
