Montana
State abbreviation/Postal code: Mont./MT Governor: Brian Schweitzer, D (to Jan. 2009) Lieut. Governor: John C. Bohlinger, R (to Jan. 2009) Senators: Max Baucus, D (to Jan. 2009); Jon Tester, D (to Jan. 2013) Historical biographies of Congressional members Secy. of State: Brad Johnson R (to Jan. 2009) Auditor: John Morrison, D (to Jan. 2009) Atty. General: Mike McGrath, D (to Jan. 2009) Organized as territory: May 26, 1864 Entered Union (rank): Nov. 8, 1889 (41) Present constitution adopted: 1972 Motto: Oro y plata (Gold and silver)
Nickname: Treasure State Origin of name: From the Spanish word meaning “mountain.” 10 largest cities (2005): Billings, 98,721; Missoula, 62,923; Great Falls, 56,338; Bozeman, 33,535; Butte-Silver Bow,1 32,282; Helena, 27,383; Kalispell, 18,480; Havre, 9,390; Anaconda–Deer Lodge County, 8,948; Miles City, 8,162 Land area: 145,552 sq mi. (376,980 sq km) Geographic center: In Fergus Co., 11 mi. W of Lewistown Number of counties: 56 Largest county by population and area: Yellowstone, 136,691 (2005); Beaverhead, 5,543 sq mi. State forests: 7 State parks: 50 Residents: Montanan 2005 resident population est.: 935,670 2000 resident census population (rank): 902,195 (44). Male: 449,480 (49.8%); Female: 452,715 (50.2%). White: 817,229 (90.6%); Black: 2,692 (0.3%); American Indian: 56,068 (6.2%); Asian: 4,691 (0.5%); Other race: 5,315 (0.6%); Two or more races: 15,730 (1.7%); Hispanic/Latino: 18,081 (2.0%). 2000 percent population 18 and over: 74.5; 65 and over: 13.4; median age: 37.5. 1. The city is part of a consolidated city-county government and is coextensive with Silver Bow County. |
First explored for France by François and Louis-Joseph Verendrye in the early 1740s, much of the region was acquired by the U.S. from France as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Before western Montana was obtained from Great Britain in the Oregon Treaty of 1846, American trading posts and forts had been established in the territory.
The major Indian Wars (1867–1877) included the famous 1876 Battle of the Little Big Horn, better known as “Custer's Last Stand,” in which Cheyenne and Sioux defeated George A. Custer and more than 200 of his men in southeast Montana.
Much of Montana's early history was concerned with mining, with copper, lead, zinc, silver, coal, and oil as principal products. Butte is the center of the area that once supplied half of the U.S. copper.
Fields of grain cover much of Montana's plains. It ranks high among the states in wheat and barley, with rye, oats, flaxseed, sugar beets, and potatoes as other important crops. Sheep and cattle raising make significant contributions to the economy.
Tourist attractions include hunting, fishing, skiing, and dude ranching. Glacier National Park, on the Continental Divide, has 60 glaciers, 200 lakes, and many streams with good trout fishing. Other major points of interest include the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, Virginia City, Yellowstone National Park, Fort Union Trading Post and Grant-Kohr's Ranch National Historic Sites, and the Museum of the Plains Indians at Browning.
See more on Montana:
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Selected famous natives and residents:
- Dorothy Baker author;
- Dirk Benedict actor;
- W. A. (Tony) Boyle labor union official;
- Gary Cooper actor;
- John Cowan prospector and founder of Last Chance Gulch (now Helena);
- Alfred Bertram Guthrie Pulitzer Prize–winning author;
- Chet Huntley TV newscaster;
- Will James writer and artist;
- Dorothy Johnson author;
- Evel Knievel daredevil motorcyclist;
- Myrna Loy actress;
- David Lynch filmmaker;
- Mike Mansfield senator;
- George Montgomery actor;
- Jeannette Rankin first woman elected to Congress;
- Martha Raye actress;
- Charles M. Russell painter;
- Michael Smuin choreographer;
- Lester C. Thurow economist and educator.
Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Baucus Plan Would Gut State-Level Insurance Industry Regulation
by dday
Wed Sep 09, 2009 at 09:27:06 AM PDT
Max Baucus’ plan had the name of Liz Fowler, a former WellPoint VP who now works for the Finance Committee, in the metadata. When you have WellPoint personnel instrumental in writing the laws, you get little provisions like this:
Interstate Sale of Insurance. Starting in 2015, states may form “health care choice compacts” to allow for the purchase of non-group health insurance across state lines. Such compacts may exist between two or more states. Once compacts have been formed, insurers would be allowed to sell policies in any state participating in the compact. Insurers selling policies through a compact would only be subject to the laws and regulations of the state where the policy is written or issued.
This is something that conservatives have been begging to do for years. Even the most outgunned conservative on a talking head debate can vomit up “let people take their insurance across state lines to increase competition!” It sounds reasonable. But there’s a very good reason why it would quickly turn into a nightmare, and you can see it in the examples of Delaware and South Dakota.
Both of those states have essentially no regulations on credit card companies. When legislation passed allowing banks to issue credit cards across state lines, some states started wildly deregulating their credit card markets in a race to the bottom. South Dakota and Delaware won. And now practically all credit cards are issued from those two states.
This would be precisely what would happen to the health insurance market under these “health care choice compacts,” which could go national, based on this language. Right now, insurance companies can sell their coverage “across state lines,” they just have to be accountable to the laws of the state where they sell it. Under this plan, insurers would be allowed to ignore the regulations in the state where individuals purchase insurance, and only subject to the laws where they issue it. Insurance regulations vary widely in the states, and would do so more under this compact. Anti-government legislatures could gut insurance regulation to entice insurers into setting up their corporate HQs there. States with regulations in place might prefer to lighten their regulatory case load, in this era of budget struggles, and let some other state deal with it. The insurance exchanges would presumably put a stop to this practice, but crucially, they only have a state-level framework and not a national one.
Consumer Watchdog jumped on this today, claiming that this race to the bottom could be expanded.
Washington, D.C. — The consumer group that pioneered the most successful insurance premium regulation law in the nation, which has saved California drivers $62 billion on auto insurance rates since 1988, released a report today outlining the deep flaws in the proposed Senate Finance Committee health reforms. The report calls on Congress to adopt “prior approval” health insurance rate regulation and block insurance industry efforts to gut state consumer protection laws.
A “framework plan” released today by the so-called “Group of Six” Senators negotiating a health reform bill headed by Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) would open the door to gutting state laws. The plan would result in a “race to the bottom” in health care regulation by allowing insurance companies that participate in “health care compacts” to choose the weakest state law to govern all their policies, regardless of which state the policies are sold in. Currently, insurance companies must abide by the state laws of any state where they sell insurance. The Baucus plan resembles an industry proposal carried by Mike Enzi (R-WY) in 2006 discussed below [...]
** Loss of state benefit mandates would allow exclusion of preventive treatments and exams, prevent early diagnosis of disease and evade Patient Bill of Rights laws passed in nearly every state. Denying access to such basic preventive care makes treatment more costly to the policyholder and ultimately to taxpayers, who pick up the bill when individuals cannot pay outrageous out-of-pocket costs.
** State laws providing consumers the right to appeal a coverage denial to an independent panel of physicians, a right to a second opinion, and assistance from state regulators when coverage is denied would all be lost under the Enzi approach.
** Individual patients who currently have the ability to hold insurers financially accountable for injuries caused by the denial or delay of necessary care would lose those rights if they joined the Enzi co-op.
This is what you get when industry VPs write your laws.
...oh by the way, in case you think that some federal overseer will smooth this out, there is no federal overseer of the health insurance industry. It's all enforced at the state level, and the only thing the Baucus plan adds is a call for states to hire an ombudsman:
Ombudsman. In 2010, states would be required to establish an ombudsman office to act as a consumer advocate for those with private coverage in the individual and small group markets. Policyholders whose health insurers have rejected claims and who have exhausted internal appeals would be able to access the ombudsman office for assistance.
Yay, the states get an ombudsman! And he or she can only be tapped if individuals "exhaust internal appeals"; that is, beg their insurers to stop cheating them. And since the states will be establishing the office themselves, they'll set the budgets and choose the staff - meaning that we'll potentially be leaving enforcement of insurance regulations in Texas and South Carolina, for example, to Rick Perry and Mark Sanford. And, given this "health care choice compacts" rider, they could set the enforcement for the entire nation.
Fuck You Max Baucus
by jgkojak
Wed Sep 09, 2009 at 09:22:43 AM PDT
Fuck you. Just fuck you.
There are no other words. This is getting personal.
You want me to send 13% of my income to a private corporation, and if I don't you'll come after me with the I.R.S. or some other means? And what if I still don't have money? Are you going to put me in jail? Seize my home?
I am willing to sacrifice some personal liberty (the right to be uninsured) to contribute my healthy body to the greater good so that everyone can be insured, but I'm not willing to do it at 1) such a high cost, 2) such a high deductable, 3) with such a steep penalty.
This is an attack on me and my family. I'm a lifelong Democrat and I'm disgusted. Fuck you.
Fuck you for the $3,800 fine. How'd you come up with that number? When you have $400 left after paying bills every month, $3800 may as well be $38,000, you won't be getting it, it ain't there.
You'd rather I sell my home, try to find someplace cheaper (a trailer? not sure where else, my home is pretty cheap) so that I may ante up to your buddies in the insurance industry? My mom, who is not yet eligible for Medicare and doing her best to stay in her home, you want her 13% too?
And, when my kid breaks his arm climbing a tree, I'm still out $1,5000-$2,000? That sets me back a couple months, to the point that I'll have to juggle a bill. Mortgage? Electricity? Car Insurance? Guess I'll skip those, because if I happen to lapse/skip my health insurance, I'm in big trouble- not just with my insurance company- I can handle them- but with the government. Here comes my fine?
Now, I'm sure you've built in some lovely protections on some of these scnerios, but THAT IS NOT HOW THE DEATH PANEL OBSESSED MEDIA WILL READ THIS BILL. HAVE YOU BEEN SLEEPING UNDER A ROCK THIS SUMMER? The only difference is, this really is a bad bill and really is indefensible.
You know all those 20 and 30somethings who voted Democratic in record numbers? You want them to pony up big money for their healthy bodies or be penalized? You can kiss their asses goodbye in future elections for the next 50 years. You know all the hispanics and new Americans who voted for the Democrats? They may hate racism, but they hate having their pockets picked even more- especially since many of them came from countries where a corrupt corporate-controlled state is in bed with the government. Say goodbye to the hispanic vote too.
And what if I hate my health insurance and don't have any real choices? What if I have to advocate for myself or a family member? Since I'm mandated, I don't really have a lot of choices, do I? You think the insurance companies don't know this? They won't give a rats ass who is or isn't with them, because it all evens out- Blue Cross pisses me off, I choose a competitor, the competitor pisses someone off, they choose Blue Cross. Its a shell game with people.
FUCK YOU MAX BAUCUS. Just FUCK YOU. This bill is an insult. It is a mockery of our party, it is a mockery of our country, it is a mockery of personal liberty. FUCK YOU.
If the Democrats pass this bill, I will hold my nose and vote for a Republican in 2010... just to ensure my vote counts to get rid of all the fuckers in my own party who would allow this to happen. I will also not vote for Obama in 2012 if he were to somehow sign anything close to this bill into law. It is a joke, it is a mockery, it is WRONG.
FUCK YOU. Fuck anyone who supports this bill. Fuck the Senate for even allowing this mockery to come to the fore. Thank you Max for giving a shot in the arm to everyone opposed to health care reform. Thank you for giving life, on the day of Obama's speech, to another opportunity to misinterpret the intent of reform. Fuck you fuck you fuck you. Just fuck you.
Reid, Durbin, Schumer, if your staff are reading this, print this out, and know that my sentiments above will be repeated in the millions. So a million fuck yous if you don't have the sense or the guts to kill this legislation.
Fuck you Max.
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