A program that helps residents sign up for health insurance in some of Montana’s most rural and underserved areas will be forced to slash services after the Trump administration gutted its funding.

Cover Montana, an initiative run by the Montana Primary Care Association, has since 2021 sent staff members — the group calls them "Navigators" — all over the state to help an estimated 50,000 people apply for Medicaid or secure private insurance from the federal marketplace. Much of their focus has been on low-income households, those who are uninsured, Native Americans and pregnant women or new moms.

In 2024, the feds awarded Cover Montana $1.3 million over the next five years to continue this work. President Donald Trump’s White House announced in February plans to decimate the grant na

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