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Montana’s Republican Sen. Steve Daines sat with a group of seniors Friday morning between gym equipment in Belgrade to talk about tapping into care through private health plans backed by the government. A handful of people, selected to talk in advance, described access to places like The Gym of Belgrade through Medicare Advantage — plans offered by private companies that contract with Medicare. Much of the conversations doubled down on Daines’ support for the program that he said covers 50,000 Montanans. “The Medicare Advantage program ensures our seniors have access and, an important word, affordable, an important word, high-quality health

U.S. Senator Steve Daines recently met with Kandi Christophersen, the 2019 Montana Special Olympics Athlete of the Year from Billings. Kandi has competed in the Special Olympics for 22 years in over 10 different sports, including two trips to the national competition in 2006 and 2010!   Montana Special Olympics CEO Rhonda McCarty was also in attendance. Together they shared stories of what makes Kandi such a fierce Special Olympics competitor. They also thanked Senator Daines for being such a strong supporter of the Montana Special Olympics.

Sen. Steve Daines is supporting a bipartisan proposal brewing in the Senate Finance Committee that would cap annual out-of-pocket costs for seniors enrolled in Medicare Part D. The proposal, known as the Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act, has the support of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and the Trump administration. “I hear from seniors who are struggling with high, out-of-pocket costs when it comes to their prescription drugs,” Daines told Azar during a recent committee hearing. “I’m glad the administration voiced its support for such a proposal in the president’s budget. It’s an important policy that I’m going

BILLINGS, Mont. — Two Veterans Affairs clinics will now bear the names of World War II veterans, Benjamin Steele and Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow. The renaming came after legislation authored by U.S. Senator Steve Daines, U.S. Senator Jon Tester, and Congressman Greg Gianforte. “It’s so appropriate that we now have a facility that holds the names of Montana war heroes and its going to be a place where veterans can come and get healed,” says Congressman Gianforte. “It’s such a great made in Montana story — two Montana natives that went on and did heroic things in World War II,”

A bill naming a ridge near Emigrant Peak in honor of Air Force pilots who died there has passed the U.S. Senate. The B-47 Ridge Designation Act honors the crew of a bomber that crashed in the summer of 1962, killing the four men on board — Capt. Bill Faulconer, Lt. Fred Hixenbaugh, Lt. David Sutton and Lt. Lloyd Sawyers. The bill would would designate the southwestern arm of Emigrant Peak as B-47 Ridge and allow for placement of a plaque at the crash site where plane debris is still strewn. Montana’s congressional delegation announced Senate passage of the bill

Republican Senator Steve Daines videoconferenced into a Sidney High School classroom full of students on Wednesday afternoon, Feb. 12. The students — from social sciences teacher Brad Faulhaber’s class — were eager to ask questions. The first question proposed to the U.S. senator by a student in the class was about changes he’d like to make to the current healthcare system. “We need the cost lowered,” Daines said. “That’s one issue I hear about more than anything else, is the costs are too high.” Following up on the question of drug prices was senior Madison Brost, who brought up the continuing rising cost of insulin.