HELENA, Mont. – The 53 members of the King Colony Hutterite community live a communal, mostly self-sufficient life. They quietly farm the land, shun individual property ownership and shy away from most government aid.
But now the colony is at the center of a high-stakes battle coming before the state Supreme Court on Wednesday over whether members are eligible for Medicaid benefits.
The case began after seven women from the colony applied for and received Medicaid benefits despite the colony’s estimated $2.1 million net worth from farmland, crops and livestock.
The state cut off the benefits, prompting the women to sue. They claim the state was discriminating against them based on their religious beliefs.
The case poses a broader problem for the state. If the women win, the state could face similar requests for benefits from state’s 49 other Hutterite colonies, said Russ Cater, chief legal counsel for the state Department of Public Health and Human Services.
“I think it was simply a business judgment that health care costs are rising considerably and if they can get someone else to pay for their health care costs in the end it would benefit their colony, their business, their members,” Cater said.
A woman who answered the phone at the King Colony would not discuss the case, calling it a private matter. She would not identify herself.
The Hutterites have roots in the 16th-century Anabaptist religious movement in Europe – the same movement that gave rise to the Mennonites and Amish. They live in communal agricultural colonies where the men and women have traditional roles and wear traditional clothing.
Technology is embraced on the colony, as long as it helps advance the common good. Men use tractors and combines.
Kent Kasting, an attorney for the seven women, has said the community’s men make all financial decisions and the women have no access to the colony’s assets.
“They don’t own anything,” Kasting said. “They can’t – they come into the world with nothing.”
In 1992, the women applied for and were granted benefits through Medicaid, the government program that helps pay for medical care for the poor. Later, the state told them it didn’t believe they qualified for the benefits and planned to cut them off at the end of 2001.
The department argued that King Colony established a “trust relationship” through its founding documents that gives the women access to the colony’s assets.
A state district judge ruled in favor of the women in March, but the state appealed.
Cater said the colony could sell some of its resources to cover medical expenses.
According to the national Hutterite organization, there are about 40,000 Hutterites living on 458 colonies in the United States and Canada. Of those, about 4,000 Hutterites live in Montana.
“Right now not all colonies are sending their members to apply for Medicaid,” Cater said. “It’s only a few such as the King Colony, but we have received word from the other colonies that if the state loses this case they may have to re-evaluate their past practices and perhaps send their members to ask for Medicaid assistance.”
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