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Medicaid expansion extended; lawmakers cite mental-health and prison infrastructure investments
Summary
Senators at a City Club Missoula forum said Medicaid expansion will extend coverage to tens of thousands of Montanans and that the 2025 session included funding for behavioral health, critical access hospitals and prison infrastructure to bring inmates back in-state.
Senator Ellie Boldman and Senator Greg Hertz told City Club Missoula attendees that Medicaid expansion and investments in behavioral health were central accomplishments of the 2025 legislative session. Boldman said the Medicaid effort expands coverage for an estimated 75,000 Montanans and will help rural critical access hospitals.
"75,000 Montanans and rural critical access hospitals will have access to critical care," Boldman said, noting the expansion will affect both patients and rural health providers. Panelists described Medicaid expansion as a priority that became broadly settled early in the session.
Lawmakers also discussed investments in behavioral health and crisis care. Boldman said the session made "generational investments" in mental-health and crisis services. She told the forum that the state has long been sending inmates to prisons in other states and that 2025 budget action funds a new in‑state prison and improvements to Warm Springs facilities.
Senator Boldman said counties that have housed people with mental-health needs in county jails will see state funding to offset those local burdens going forward. She credited multiple legislators and county officials for advancing the funding and said the changes should reduce the need to send inmates out of state for housing and care.
Speakers said Medicaid expansion helped shape other agenda items. Hertz noted the governor made Medicaid expansion a priority and that early agreement reduced friction over that issue later in the session. Both senators said some legislative items remain vulnerable to gubernatorial line-item vetoes and future budget actions.
The panelists framed these health and corrections investments as both fiscal and public-health priorities, with direct effects on rural hospitals, county jails and families seeking care.
