AUBURN — If MaineCare is expanded to add another 70,000 clients to the rolls, “it will break an already fragile system,” Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Mary Mayhew said Wednesday. Such an expansion also would continue to drain resources needed for other necessary social services and state programs, including building roads and funding […]
MaineCare
Posted inLetters
W. Werts: Health care for the veterans
I recently went to the Homeless Veterans Stand Down at the Veterans Administration hospital in Augusta. That annual fall event helps homeless veterans by connecting them with resources like MaineCare and employment services. The VA also provides health screenings and warm clothing for the winter. I was glad to see so many people come out […]
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Posted inLocal & State
Lawmakers continue scrutiny of MaineCare ride program
AUGUSTA — The executives in charge of a new brokerage system for delivering non-emergency rides, under a program offered through MaineCare, the state’s Medicaid system, say they have largely corrected many of the problems that led to confusion, frustration and missed medical appointments earlier this fall. But advocates for those who receive the rides and […]
Posted inLocal & State, sj-web
Legislators to discuss MaineCare transportation programs
AUGUSTA — Lawmakers are set to receive a briefing on the $40 million MaineCare rides program after reports of missed rides and thousands of complaints. The Portland Press Herald reports that Tuesday’s progress report could determine whether legislative leaders push to cancel any contracts with private companies that provide transportation to and from medical appointments […]
Posted inOp-Eds
James Lysen: Keeping people healthy is the best solution
Recent letters and guest columns in the Sun Journal have raised issues concerning the recent failure of Maine to expand MaineCare, and attempts to obstruct the Affordable Care Act — the law of the land — that I would like to address. MaineCare expansion was favored by strong majorities in both the Maine Senate and […]
Posted inFranklin, Lewiston-Auburn, Oxford Hills, River Valley
State to Lewiston company: Answer calls, show up or else
After missing more than 4,000 rides and having as many as half of callers hang up over long wait times, the state has put a Lewiston company that arranges rides for MaineCare patients on notice. It has until Monday to spell out what’s wrong and why, and was given two months to turn its performance […]
Posted inOp-Eds
Heidi Brooks: Health care is a human right
On Sept. 15, the Sun Journal published a piece co-authored by several Republican legislators regarding the debate about whether Maine should accept federal funds for health care. A cornerstone of the Affordable Care Act is that states accept funds to provide 69,500 of Maine’s lowest income people health care through MaineCare, the state’s Medicaid program. […]
Posted inOp-Eds
Rich Livingston: Saving lives by any name has to be a good thing
There has been quite a lot of verbal ping pong, much of it played out on the pages of the Sun Journal, about whether Medicaid should be called “welfare,” or not. What possible difference does that make to the lives of people who would or would not have access to life-saving health care depending on […]
Posted inLocal & State, sj-web
LePage to visit CMMC at 2 p.m. today to pay MaineCare debt
LEWISTON — Gov. Paul LePage will visit Central Maine Medical Center at 2 p.m. Wednesday to deliver the news that the state is making good on a $183 million debt it has owed the state’s 39 hospitals beginning in 2009. The state payment for past services provided under MaineCare, the state’s Medicaid system, will trigger […]
Posted inLocal & State
Maine Democrats and LePage renew debate over Medicaid expansion
AUGUSTA — Leaders in the Legislature’s Democratic majority renewed calls Tuesday to expand the MaineCare system to cover an additional 70,000 people, including childless adults and veterans who have non-service-related medical issues not covered by the Veterans Affairs Administration. House Speaker Mark Eves, D-North Berwick, disputed Republican claims that accepting federal funds under the Affordable […]