A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.
Montana Rally for Public Lands. Tomorrow, advocates of keeping federal lands in federal hands will gather in Helena under the Capitol’s rotunda at high noon to make their voices heard by the Montana Legislature, where some legislators, led by Sen. Jennifer Fielder (R-Thompson Falls), want to get federal lands in Montana transferred to state ownership.
The Montana Wood Products Association opposes the federal to state transfer. Oil and gas interests support it. Conservationists, who have successfully beaten back attempted land grabs for decades, and are beating back this one, have raised Fielder’s ire.
Interested in joining the festivities? Try Public Lands in Public Hands’ Facebook Page, or just show up. You’ll be welcome.
Raw milk and the black market for it. Bootleg moo juice can sell for $8–10 per gallon, making its under the manure wagon sale worth the risk for unethical dairymen. Even the National Geographic writes about it. Just query Google a bit, find a likely farm, and give Old MacDonald a call. Tell him you need two gallons of raw milk a week for your cats (you have many, and Lord, they’re thirsty). If HB-245 becomes law, that small black market will be legalized in Montana — and the bootleggers will become legitimate businessmen who are protected by statute from liability for any adverse health effect their product produces. Am I the only person who thinks HB-245 makes cow pies smell sweet?
King v. Burwell, low income Montanans, and health insurance. In early March, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in King v. Burwell, the case in which the plaintiffs argue that the Affordable Care Act only provides federal subsidies for health insurance policies purchased through state ACA exchanges.
Montana does not have an ACA health insurance exchange. The Republican controlled Legislature refused to authorized one. Therefore, Montanans must use the federal exchange. If in King v. Burwell SCOTUS rules that the ACA only provides subsidies for policies purchased through state exchanges, thousands of Montanans would have to pay the full price of the insurance, a price many cannot afford (that’s why the ACA was passed, remember?).
Congress could, of course, moot King v. Burwell, by tweaking the ACA to eliminate the alleged ambiguity upon which King v. Burwell is based. But as Talking Points Memo reported Friday, that’s not going to happen:
When asked on Friday at a meeting with reporters, House Ways & Means Chair Paul Ryan (R-WI), a key figure overseeing U.S. health policy, said there was no desire among Republicans to tweak the law to defuse the case.
“No,” Ryan said.
The Republican chairman said his party feels “obligated” to come up with a contingency plan for the King v. Burwell case. He said a ruling against the government, which he and other Republicans are calling for, would “affect real peoples’ lives.”
“The idea is not to make Obamacare work better,” he said, adding that the goal would be to give states more freedom “to get out of Obamacare.”
Montanans who believe it would be better for expanded Medicaid eligible Montanans to buy subsidized insurance should take notice of Ryan’s comments. Hospitals and doctors like private health insurance better than Medicaid because private insurance sometimes pays them more than Medicaid — but if King v. Burwell takes out the subsides on the federal exchange, it will also take out those higher payments.
Montana’s legislature could set up an ACA exchange in Montana, thus mitigating a SCOTUS ruling in King v. Burwell that guts the ACA. But no one should have high hopes that will happen; indeed, any hopes. The Republican opposition to the ACA is ideological, not practical. In fact, some GOPers on the libertarian fringe even reject the idea of health insurance, believing it encourages moral hazard (see also The Great Risk Shift, by Jacob Hacker). If subsidies on the federal exchange are axed by SCOTUS, Montanans who purchased subsidized policies there will end up not being able to afford health insurance.