HEALTHCARE/OBAMACARE(ACA)/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “As the Trump administration takes steps to weaken provisions of the Affordable Care Act, voters in Maine are being asked whether the state should embrace a central plank of the 2010 law.
The November statewide ballot measure proposes the state accept enhanced federal funding available under the health law to extend Medicaid health benefits to low-income adults, over the strong opposition of the state’s Republican governor, Paul LePage. Mr. LePage argues that the expansion would deplete state coffers.
Advocates elsewhere are also seeking to put the question to voters. Supporters of expanding Medicaid in Utah filed a petition last week to place the issue on the 2018 ballot. Several other states including Idaho, Tennessee and West Virginia put plans to expand their Medicaid programs on hold as Congress debated a repeal of the law, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey set to be published later this month.
Medicaid expansion, which has extended health coverage to 14 million people who were uninsured before the ACA, has enjoyed growing support this year after Republicans in Washington made repeated runs at repealing the ACA. Even some Republican lawmakers, who had derided the Medicaid expansion, hesitated to pare it back. One of the program’s strongest GOP Senate defenders was Maine’s Susan Collins.”
-Jennifer Levitz and Michele Hackman, “In Maine, Medicaid Expansion Goes Before the Voters,” The Wall Street Journal online, Oct. 16, 2017 07:00am