AUGUSTA — Yes, the rolls have grown, and David Farmer says Maine’s healthier for it.

Farmer, former deputy chief of staff for Gov. John Baldacci and now a political media consultant, was in Augusta on Wednesday helping to organize a rally that took issue with Gov. Paul LePage’s proposal to trim MaineCare. LePage has complained, in part, that the former administration helped create a budget shortfall by insuring too many people.

In 2002, the year before Baldacci took office, the state sought federal approval to begin accepting childless adults into MaineCare, the state’s Medicaid program. In July 2002, MaineCare covered 202,000 people, according to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. In January 2011, when Baldacci left office, 352,717 people were in the program. It’s now at roughly 361,000.

“Gov. Baldacci had a core principle of expanding access to health care coverage,” Farmer said. “He was determined not to reduce eligibility like Gov. LePage has, and it’s something to be proud of.

“Maine has, I believe, the sixth-lowest rate of uninsured in the country and that has also contributed to Maine being one of the healthiest states in the country,” Farmer said. “These things are related. If you take health insurance, health care, preventive services away from people, they will not be as healthy.”

Farmer said LePage, who has proposed stopping coverage for 65,000 people to help fill a $220 million budget shortfall, sounds like he’s still running for office.

“Keep in mind, this is his budget,” Farmer said. “He wrote this budget; he passed this budget and he signed it.”

Though it’s a $2.5 billion program, the state’s General Fund portion of MaineCare was $552.2 million in 2011, with most of the rest made up by federal dollars, according to DHHS data. Maine’s General Fund share was $496 million in 2003, and $613 million in 2008.

Childless adults with income below the federal poverty level are now among the groups whose coverage LePage has proposed stopping. In October, they made up 18,819 of those receiving MaineCare.

“Eliminating funding for a program does not change people’s need,” Farmer said. “People won’t stop being old or sick or frail or disabled just because a program goes away.”

Addressing another charge, that the Baldacci administration should have reimbursed Maine hospitals sooner for MaineCare: “There was a balance but that balance predated the Baldacci administration and we made significant payments to reduce the amount that was owed to them,” Farmer said. “We were the ones who implemented the pay-as-you-go system that is in effect right now, to make sure that never happens again.”

As a consultant, his clients include groups that organized the Maine Can Do Better Coalition, which was behind Wednesday’s rally.

Attempts to reach Baldacci, working with the U.S. Department of Defense on health care reform, and former DHHS Commissioner Brenda Harvey, now with the New England States Consortium Systems Organization, were unsuccessful.

kskelton@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link