Mike Jopek

March to Label Engineered Food

Young moms like Sylvia Malaga of Whitefish are organizing an educational day of action called the “March against Monsanto.” These events are planned in 200 places worldwide. One hundred and sixty are in the U.S with four rallies in Montana. The Kalispell event is Saturday, May 25 from noon to 5 p.m. at Depot Park. It is open to the public.

Malaga is part of a growing generation that unknowingly could be eating genetically modified organisms their entire lives. Her child is born into a generation that does not know life before GMOs.

Malaga took action, and wants information about engineered foods. “Our march focuses on labeling genetically engineered foods so that each family can make their own decisions on whether they want to eat them or not,” Malaga wrote.

Malaga hopes that once GMO products are labeled, the marketplace will let informed consumers decide what to eat.

GMOs have saturated the corporate food market. They’re likely in soda pop, corn chips and most processed food.

Congress is unwilling to make the profitable corporate agricultural industry add one more piece of information to the extensive list of food labeling. Consumers simply want to know which foods are engineered and which are traditional foods.

Only certified organic foods or trusting where your local farmer purchases their seed assures a family it is not eating engineered products.

Hundreds of millions of pounds of a synthetic glyphosate are annually sprayed in the field, as GMO products are resistant to the herbicide while it somewhat kills competing weeds. This creates a sickening prospect for a generation of unknowing GMO eaters.

Last year as part of the Farm Bill, Sen. Jon Tester was one of only 26 Senators voting to allow states the right to label GMO foods. The Farm Bill largely subsidizes GMO crops like corn, sugar beets, canola and soybeans. This commodity foursome is plentiful in processed foods.
Tester is now backing a bipartisan bill requiring that genetically engineered food is labeled. Tester said, “American families shouldn’t have to play a guessing game when it comes to the food they put on their kitchen tables.”

Tester cosponsored another bill to eliminate hunger, help young farmers grow and work toward labeling.

Engineered foods are also drifting into other food arenas like salmon, apples and into garden-variety seeds available on store aisles.

Tester has a long history of advocating for farming. He exempted small family farmers from federal regulations targeted toward corporate agriculture practices.

Last month Tester was on the Senate floor mad about a secret GMO rider on a bill keeping government open. The law signed by President Barack Obama, covertly gives industry protection from lawsuits challenging the health or safety of GMOs. Tester was the only Democrat in the Senate voting against this law.

Back in 2005 while serving in the Montana Legislature, Tester sponsored a bill to establish liability for genetically engineered wheat grown in the state. Montana still has the purest, best wheat grown anywhere.

The 2013 Farm Bill is on the move in Congress. Eaters can only hope that that more courageous congressmen join Tester requiring a label on GMOs.

As a candidate, Obama advocated for labeling. But as president, Obama has been coldly silent about labeling engineered products. Instead, the federal agencies charged with food oversight have been overrun by the GMO industry.

Having been ignored too long, it’s increasingly likely that progressive eaters will stay home during the 2014 midterm elections.

Mothers like Malaga and farmers like Tester are doing their respective duty to secure a transparent food system for all eaters.

Flathead eaters should join Malaga and the hundreds of other invitees from across the valley at the May 25 educational rally. Consumers must become actively engaged in this growing food movement.

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-Mike Jopek is a retired State Legislator who again helps run the family farm in Whitefish. He welcomes feedback at mike@mikejopek.com.

Copyright 2013 www.mikejopek.com All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Tin Men Have No Heart

The 63rd Montana Legislature is over. The assembly of elected servants passed a state budget, gave public servants a small raise, funded public education, shored up public pensions, invested in public infrastructure, and conducted themselves more-or-less with the respect that service warrants.

In the closing days, politicians passed a lopsided $150 million income tax cut that oddly raised taxes on the working poor but cut taxes for the rich. A business equipment tax cut may become law, but lawmakers provided no help for Flathead homeowners stung from home property tax reappraisals.

Overall, the Legislature was prepared to earn an above average grade for policy efforts but the health care debacle dragged report card grades to below average.

With U.S. Sen. Max Baucus due for re-election in 2014, Montana Republicans hungered to again bash “ObamaCare” in next fall’s elections. But Baucus did the unforeseeable; he retired with grace after four giant decades of public service to Montana.

The bashing of ObamaCare did not defeat U.S. Sen. Jon Tester last November. And it would’ve had little effect against Baucus, who was a tenacious campaigner.

Rep. Pat Noonan introduced the first Medicaid expansion bill into the Legislature before St. Valentine’s Day. It would have accepted $774 million of federal funding to expand Medicaid over the next two years, created 5,000 jobs immediately, and provided life-saving health care to 70,000 uninsured Montanans.

Gov. Steve Bullock proposed Access Heath Montana in the House. It accepted the same $774 million of federal funding, created the same thousands of jobs, and enrolled 70,000 uninsured Montanans into the federal single payer Medicaid program.

Bullock tailored his proposal to increase doctors and caretakers in Montana. Bullock included a sunset provision of a three-year trial. Subsequent Legislatures would have to reauthorize the policy. It contained little cost to the state.

With the notable exception of freshman Rep. Ed Lieser, D-Whitefish, the Flathead House lawmakers opposed access to health care. A University of Montana study indicates that more than 12,000 people in Flathead County could gain access to federal funding, becoming eligible to enroll into the single-payer insurance program designed for the poor.

The Senate had two major health care bills. Sen. Christine Kauffman’s, D-Helena, bill to accept 100 percent federal funding was tabled.

Sen. Dave Wanzenried, D-Missoula, passed a federal funding bill to the House, with Sen. Bruce Tutvedt, R-Kalispell, supporting Medicaid expansion.

Wanzenried’s bill was sent to a committee where Rep. Scott Reichner, R-Bigfork, and fellow Republicans promptly tabled the lifesaving bill.

With Tutvedt’s help, Wanzenried amended another House bill to use the $774 million of federal funding to help provide private insurance from the open market for as many as 12,000 citizens in Flathead County alone.

But Speaker Mark Blasdel, R-Somers, undertook a tricky procedural move and banished federal funding to founder in committee rather than debate the bill on the House floor. Democrats objected to the unorthodox procedure, but all the Flathead Republicans supported the speaker’s rebuff of $774 million in federal funding that contained no cost to Montana.

Blasdel and Flathead House Republicans pocket vetoed the most critical bill of the 63rd Legislature.

The tin men of the Legislature assured that 70,000 Montanans are not eligible this fall to sign up for sizeable federal subsidies on the online health exchange, and have no access to $774 million of federal funding for Medicaid or private insurance. Poor Montanans are subject to federal mandate fines come January, and existing policy holders will subsidize uncompensated health care in hospital emergency rooms.

In politics, heart matters. The Flathead House Republicans chose to not secure health care for 12,000 valley citizens. For that debacle, the 63rd Legislature earned a below average grade for substandard policy performance.

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-Mike Jopek is a retired State Legislator who again helps run the family farm in Whitefish. He welcomes feedback at mike@mikejopek.com.

Copyright 2013 www.mikejopek.com All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Flathead Leadership Moment

There are not many moments left in the Montana Legislature as next week lawmakers adjourn from the regular session. Their 90 days is up.

The major policy decisions facing Montana will be made over this weekend, heading into the start of the next and final week. Bills once tabled easily resurface amended into other bills with similar titles.

The Flathead is fortunate to have a dozen representatives in Helena. It’s a powerhouse delegation, representing a politically diverse valley. But not since 1951 has the Flathead been home to a speaker of the House.

Montana taxpayers appropriately care for lawmakers during service. Lawmakers receive less than $20,000 for expenses and salary wages for the 90-day session.

Politicians are properly eligible for travel money, retirement benefits, and dental, vision and life insurance. But a big public benefit is the nearly $18,000 in health insurance state lawmakers receive per two-year term.

Last week the sole Flathead lawmaker voting to reform Medicaid in Montana was Sen. Bruce Tutvedt, R-Kalispell. Hopefully more lawmakers will join Tutvedt in the House as Montana’s biannual session quickly comes to an end.

Rep. Ed Lieser, D-Whitefish, said that if a House floor vote occurred this session that he would support Gov. Steve Bullock’s Medicaid reform proposal.

According to fiscal analysts, accepting Medicaid would infuse $6 billion into Montana’s economy over the next eight years. It would create some 12,000 jobs.

In the Flathead Valley nearly 19,000 people are uninsured. Accepting Medicaid provides health coverage for more than 10,000 people just in the Flathead. Old people and young people earning less than $15,400 are then eligible for Medicaid insurance. Minimum wage earners working full-time jobs do not qualify.

A community health needs assessment by the Flathead City-County Health Department, Kalispell Regional Healthcare and the North Valley Hospital indicate that nearly one quarter of valley residents under the age of 65 are uninsured. And nearly three quarters of the uninsured report that they cannot purchase insurance because it is unaffordable.

Bullock’s Medicaid reform bill would accept $774 million in federal money in to Montana over the next two years. That’s a lot of money into the state.

Today, the federal government pays for two-thirds of the cost to run the existing Montana Medicaid.

Under Bullock’s reform proposal, the federal government pays 100 percent of Montana Medicaid for the next three years and transitions to 90 percent in six years.

Bullock’s Medicaid reform is a good financial deal for Montana, way better than the existing plan.

Speaker of the House Mark Blasdel, R-Somers, has indicated that he will not accept more federal Medicaid money for Montana. Unless Blasdel releases the caucus to vote, expect Flathead House Republicans to politically vote with a speaker of the House from the valley.

Blasdel was a freshman lawmaker in 2007 when Sen. Scott Sales, R-Bozeman, was then speaker of the House. Sales led the GOP-controlled House in not producing a budget in that 90-day session.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer promptly called lawmakers back into special session after allowing them to spend several grueling days home taking political heat from Main Street locals. The budget passed within days with Blasdel in opposition. But Blasdel supported Schweitzer’s $400 property tax rebate during that special session.

Next week is a leadership moment for Speaker Blasdel. The onus to accept federal Medicaid money is on the House. Blasdel should put Bullock’s Medicaid reform on the House floor for a vote.

Tutvedt did well passing Medicaid in the Senate; all the Flathead House delegation should join him and accept the $6 billion of federal Medicaid money and create 12,000 jobs for Montana.

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-Mike Jopek is a retired State Legislator who again helps run the family farm in Whitefish. He welcomes feedback at mike@mikejopek.com.

Copyright 2013 www.mikejopek.com All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Healthy Job Dollars

Speaker of the House Mark Blasdel, R-Somers, and Senate President Jeff Essmann, R-Billings, are unlikely to let Montana expand access to free federal health care for nearly 70,000 Montanans.

The federal Affordable Care Act budgeted free Medicaid health insurance expansion to all citizens with incomes of less than $15,400 annually. The catch being that the U.S. Supreme Court mandated that state Legislatures must ratify the expansion.

Gov. Steve Bullock has traveled the state promoting Access Health Montana. Bullock said, “It is estimated that Medicaid expansion would bring $750 million in federal support to Montana over the next two years. Roughly 5,000 new jobs in health care related fields would also be created.”

At last week’s health care hearings in Helena, the Association of American Retired Persons said that 15,000 Montanans between the ages of 50 and 64 would be covered under the proposal. Testimony indicated that Medicaid expansion would create more jobs in Montana than the total existing mining and timber jobs combined.

Supporters of health care expansion outnumbered opponents by a 10 to one margin at the hearing. Current lieutenant governor and former adjutant general of the Montana National Guard John Walsh testified that Medicaid could provide health insurance for thousands of military veterans transitioning back to civilian life from years of wars.

Montana House Republicans passed a separate bill spending $400,000 of state general fund money to study health care for two more years. The House assigned a GOP-controlled committee to spearhead the effort.

Apparently, the GOP is still politically hedging that they can transform Montana Medicaid into a state-run voucher program, where a vastly smaller and select group of people use federal dollars to purchase private insurance on the open market.

But since Medicaid is consistently less expensive than private insurance, the GOP’s two-year study will prove an unworkable waste of time and shortchange citizens who now lost two years of federal health care money.

Montana doctors, business leaders and citizens are becoming increasingly frustrated as the biggest job-creating, economy-boosting and lifesaving bill simply flounders in a GOP-controlled Legislature. Medicaid expansion was introducesdbefore Valentine’s Day.

Given the rigid opposition from Speaker Blasdel and President Essmann, Medicaid may not expand in Montana. Enough moderate Republicans would have to stand together and politically “roll” leadership. But the stakes could not be bigger for Montanans.

All major policy decisions occur in the closing days of the session. Republicans control the Montana Legislature and the parliamentary rules. The GOP has the votes to stop billions of federal dollars from being invested in Montana. But in Helena time, there are a lot of legislative days left in this session to expand Medicaid.

Fresh from Easter break, lawmakers could be faced with an amendment from the executive branch putting Medicaid directly onto the House and Senate floors for a vote. Lawmakers could also be called back into a special session unless they act.

Seventy percent of Montana voters endorsed the Children’s Health Insurance Program in a past ballot measure. Today, two-thirds of Montana Medicaid enrollees are children and elderly.

Community hospitals, charitable organizations and existing health insurance policy holders currently subsidize hundreds of millions of dollars in statewide health care for people without insurance.

Last year Whitefish’s hospital reported $19 million in unpaid services for patients. Kalispell’s hospital provided $38 million and Billings’ hospitals delivered $28 million in unpaid care.

Bullock met with local Flathead leaders last month. Kalispell Mayor Tammi Fisher reportedly said that she was one of the original naysayers to the federal health care law. But like most hometown realists Fisher demonstrated that the time for political acrimony is over by saying, “Go get the dollars.”

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-Mike Jopek is a retired State Legislator who again helps run the family farm in Whitefish. He welcomes feedback at mike@mikejopek.com.

Copyright 2013 www.mikejopek.com All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

$6 Billion Decision

Next week Montana’s Legislature begins hearings on the most critical bills of the session. Lawmakers must choose whether to expand Medicaid in Montana, with the federal government paying for 100 percent of the cost over the next three years and 90 percent thereafter.

Over the next eight years Montana’s economy could see a $6 billion boost with as many as 12,700 new jobs.

State Senate President Jeff Essmann, R-Billings, recently wrote a letter in statewide newspapers outlining the Republican opposition to the plan, which would allow all Montana citizens earning less than $15,400 annually to have access to federal Medicaid health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

Essmann highlighted fraud and lobbyists as main reasons to not spend the federal money in Montana. Montana citizens earning less than $15,400 annually are permitted access to free Medicaid health insurance if, and only if, state lawmakers agree.

Medicaid expansion in Montana would bring in billions of dollars into local economies – $2 billion over the next four years. That creates nearly $500 million in annual labor income. That’s one huge investment into the statewide economy.

Essmann’s colleague is Speaker of the House Mark Blasdel, R-Somers, who recently indicated opposition to the federal money by saying, “But obviously our party has a lot of concerns about the expansion.”

Both Blasdel and Essmann politically dislike the prospects of more federal money brought into Montana.

Politically, Speaker Blasdel and President Essmann are the only lawmakers in Helena wielding enough power to stop the billions of federal dollars from being invested in Montana. Both are term-limited veteran legislators.

Will these statesmen be more concerned about spending billions of federal dollars in Montana than providing local citizens access to lifesaving health care?

Ironically, state senators receive nearly $38,000 per four-year term in taxpayer subsidized health insurance. It’s great coverage, paid for by Montana taxpayers.

If the Republican-controlled Montana Legislature wants to stop Medicaid expansion, they have the political power to block the billions in federal dollars from coming into the state.

But, it is hard to fathom that the rank-and-file Republicans would willingly attach such an anti-health care label to their political party. The GOP previously opposed taking federal funding for elderly meals programs in the Flathead and, so far this session, opposes federal funding for lifesaving women’s health care funding for places like Kalispell.

With recent anti-Medicaid flyers hitting Kalispell household mailboxes, the far-right GOP is aiming to table healthcare expansion in Montana.

Rep. Pat Noonan, D-Ramsay, will begin hearings on his Medicaid expansion bill early next week. Noonan has a moderate bill offering Montana citizens earning less than $15,400 access to the same federal Medicaid insurance offered to other states in the nation.

Some states included in the expansion a three-year reauthorization of the program, while others plan using the federal money to subsidize eligible citizens to buy private insurance from the online exchange marketplace.

Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock’s modest proposal is Access Health Montana. Bullock’s plan reportedly also includes funding for Montana students attending medical school in adjacent states, physician residency in rural areas, a health trust account and increased preventive care options.

Rejecting federal money rarely reduces national debt. Budgets transfer monies to neighboring states willing to accept billions in federal dollars boosting their local economies.

The legislative session ends next month. Republicans may ideologically reject investing billions of federal dollars from Montana’s economy. But hopefully statesmen like Bullock and Noonan will find a political solution with statesmen like Blasdel and Essmann.

Next month the GOP-controlled Montana Legislature votes on the fate of health care for nearly 70,000 citizens. The vote is about 12,700 jobs statewide, and whether $6 billion is a good investment in Montana.

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-Mike Jopek is a retired State Legislator who again helps run the family farm in Whitefish. He welcomes feedback at mike@mikejopek.com.

Copyright 2013 www.mikejopek.com All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Health Insurance for All

Rep. Pat Noonan, D-Ramsay, is one of the handfuls of moderates serving in the 2013 Montana Legislature. Noonan serves with other moderates like Sen. Llew Jones, R-Conrad. Jones carries the new natural resources component for public school financing.

Notably Noonan sponsored this Legislature’s most critical task, to implement Montana’s Medicaid expansion.

Over the next four years $2.2 billion of national health insurance money is available for all local people earning between 100 and 138 percent of Federal Poverty Level.

About 68,000 Montanans would be eligible for health care under the expansion. The state’s cost over four years is $35 million. Given the sizable budget surpluses the state enjoys, that’s feasible and already built in.

University of Montana’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research estimate expansion will create and support some 12,000 jobs in Montana. About 60 percent of these jobs would be in the health care industry with an average wage of $42,000. That’s about $500 million in annual labor income.

State ratification of the Medicaid expansion was conditioned in the U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the Affordable Care Act. Many conservative states across the nation are surprisingly embracing the concept.

In Montana, Medicaid expansion is on shaky ground. Republicans have yet to embrace expansion, and routinely demonizing it as more welfare.

Last session the GOP-controlled Legislature sought to cut all federal funding for programs like Meals on Wheels and Title X women’s health services, provided in places like Kalispell. Without former Gov. Brian Schweitzer these programs would not be a part of Montana.

In a repeat of the last session, a GOP-controlled subcommittee again cut federal funding to 27,000 Montanans seeking health care services under the federal Title X in public clinics in places like Kalispell.

Nationally, the GOP is more receptive to Medicaid expansion than to the refundable tax credit in a health insurance marketplace called Exchanges. The Exchange will allow individuals, earning between 138 and 400 percent of federal poverty level, to purchase significantly cheaper private health insurance.

Late this year people can register for the federal tax credit on the Exchange. Individuals with incomes of 138 percent of poverty can purchase health insurance at under $25 per month. Individuals earning 400 percent of poverty have rates capped around $350 per month.

Montana lawmakers already receive taxpayer-subsidized health insurance nearing $800 per month. Neither the insurance Exchange nor Medicaid expansion offers personal benefits to lawmakers.

Small business employers may also help workers transition into the insurance Exchange.  Many area wage earners qualify for the refundable and very sizable tax credits.

It’s hard to imagine that House Speaker Mark Blasdel, R-Somers, or Senate President Jeff Essmann, R –Billings, would let so much health care, for so many people, not pass the Legislature. But recently the GOP leadership has been open with journalists and frankly it sounds bad for locals needing health care.

The 2013 Legislature will surely be remembered for how it treats the health care of 68,000 Montana citizens.

Without expansion, 37,000 Montanans fall into yet another donut hole. Those earning between 100 and 138 percent of poverty would become neither eligible for free Medicaid health insurance nor the refundable federal tax credits of the Exchange.

The Legislature must get serious about job expansion and more solemn about the real life need for health care. It should pass Medicaid expansion as Noonan’s bill proposes.

Noonan’s bill brings a staggering amount of money into Montana’s economy, creating thousands of jobs. Tens of thousands of people would become insured in places like Somers, Butte, Columbia Falls and Whitefish.

The second half of the legislative session is here. Politicians should refocus on policy that matters and help local people by passing the biggest health care law in Montana’s history.

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-Mike Jopek is a retired State Legislator who again helps run the family farm in Whitefish. He welcomes feedback at mike@mikejopek.com.

Copyright 2013 www.mikejopek.com All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.