Petition drive for Medicaid expansion initiative falls short

The sponsor of a ballot initiative seeking to expand Medicaid coverage to the working poor in Montana said there wasn’t enough time to gather the required voter signatures and the initiative won’t appear on the Nov. 4 ballot.

The goal of the initiative was to expand Medicaid coverage in Montana to people making up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level — about 70,000 people.

Despite its popularity, the petition drive failed to meet the June 20 deadline to qualify the initiative for the fall ballot, Kim Abbott said.

In its ruling on the federal Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, the U.S. Supreme Court left it up to the states to decide whether to expand Medicaid coverage to the working poor. The Montana Legislature rejected the proposal in 2013, which prompted supporters to start a ballot initiative.

To qualify for the fall ballot, a statutory initiative such as Medicaid expansion must receive signatures from 5 percent of the total number of qualified voters in Montana, including 5 percent of voters in each of 34 legislative House districts — a total of 24,175 signatures from across the state.

Abbott said organizers collected more than 25,000 signatures, but an internal review indicated about 30 percent were not valid. Sponsors needed to collect 32,000 to ensure they had enough voter signatures to qualify, she said.

“In the end, the clock ran out,” she said. “We needed a couple of more weeks.”

Gov. Steve Bullock, who backs the Medicaid expansion, said he would not give up the effort. That likely means going back to the Legislature.