Maine voters clash with governor on Medicaid

Nearly 60 percent of Maine voters rebuked their Republican governor Tuesday by approving a ballot initiative to expand Medicaid in the state. Maine residents are dealing with a serious heroin epidemic and an increasingly aging population. Gov. Paul LePage has vetoed five separate attempts to expand Medicaid in the state under the Affordable Care Act. On Wednesday, the governor said he would continue to resist Medicaid expansion—regardless of the vote—unless the state legislature could figure out how to pay for it without raising taxes, using up rainy day funds or by cutting other services for the elderly and disabled. “Credit agencies are predicting that this fiscally irresponsible Medicaid expansion will be ruinous to Maine’s budget,” he said Wednesday. LePage’s tenure as Maine governor runs through 2018, and he will not be eligible for reelection. Thirty-one other states have expanded Medicaid access under Obamacare. The Maine proposal makes way for an additional 70,000 people to join the nearly 270,000 state residents already participating in Medicaid. Other states, such as Utah and Idaho, are working on similar efforts to make Medicaid expansion a ballot initiative for 2018. The moves follow unsuccessful attempts from Republicans in Congress to repeal and replace Obamacare and sunset the Medicaid expansions.