Kaiser Health News

Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte and legislators agree that Medicaid rates need to rise; where they disagree is by how much.

In 2021, Montana passed House Bill 702 — the first of its kind in the nation — which prohibited discrimination based on vaccine status in settings like employment, education, and health care. This year, lawmakers have introduced proposals to expand vaccine exemptions in schools and change criteria in the workplace and the legal system.

So far, 74% of Montana schools that submitted samples found at least one faucet or drinking fountain with high lead levels. Many of those schools are still trying to trace the source of the problem and find the money for long-term fixes.

Families will see a 30% to 40% decrease in SNAP payments as emergency allotments tied to the public health emergency halt in 32 states, including Nevada. Other states, such as Georgia, Indiana, Montana, and South Dakota, have already ended the emergency allotments.

Montana, which perennially has one of the highest suicide rates in the nation, also has a youth suicide rate twice the national average, according to a study released last year by the state Department of Public Health and Human Services.

Republican lawmakers in Montana wield a supermajority that gives them the power to ask voters to approve a constitutional amendment that would break the link between abortion rights and the right to privacy in the state’s constitution. But so far, they haven’t sought to ask voters to make the change.

As Montana grapples with a health care provider shortage, state lawmakers are trying to find ways to increase access to care.

More than four dozen Jamaican fruit bats destined for a lab in Bozeman, Montana, are set to become part of an experiment with an ambitious goal: predicting the next global pandemic.

As Montana officials seek to make nonprofit hospitals prove the benefits they provide the community justify their tax exemptions, industry leaders propose their own changes which state officials say would further limit the state’s authority.