Gov.-elect Janet Mills says she wants legal experts to evaluate what laws allow her to do, knowing that nearly 17,000 people lost their benefits in the first state that implemented similar rules.
Medicaid
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Federal government approves LePage request for work requirements for Medicaid
AUGUSTA — The federal government has approved Maine’s request to establish work and premium payment requirements for some of its 258,000 Medicaid beneficiaries. Gov. Paul LePage announced the change Friday afternoon, saying it will help push those who can work to find jobs while protecting benefits for the elderly, the disabled and children. “Under my […]
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Posted inMaine, sj-web
LePage requests stay of order to expand Medicaid
Gov. Paul LePage is continuing to fight Medicaid expansion in court, filing another motion to delay the case only five weeks before Gov.-elect Janet Mills will take over, reverse course and implement the expansion. As a result, LePage’s latest legal move may do little more than further delay access to health insurance for the 70,000 […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Judge orders LePage administration to expand MaineCare
Gov. Paul LePage plans to appeal a judge’s order that his administration move forward with a voter-approved expansion of MaineCare, the state’s Medicaid system. In an order issued Wednesday, Kennebec County Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy detailed seven steps the Maine Department of Health and Human Services must take to comply with the expansion law, […]
Posted inElection 2018, Maine, News
Janet Mills says she’ll implement Medicaid expansion immediately
Gov.-elect Janet Mills showed up at the Medicaid expansion lawsuit court hearing in Maine Superior Court on Wednesday, the morning after winning a decisive victory in the gubernatorial election. Mills said she was “here to listen” to the lawsuit, where activist group Maine Equal Justice Partners is suing the LePage administration for failing to implement Medicaid expansion. Mills, […]
Posted inMaine
Maine directs much of emergency opioid money to treatment
PORTLAND (AP) — Maine has directed most of the first wave of federal emergency money to target the opioid crisis on treatment, according to an Associated Press analysis, similar to other states that have not expanded Medicaid. States are taking very different approaches to spending their initial allotments under the 21st Century Cures Act grant program, according […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Trump picks Maine's Mary Mayhew to manage Medicaid
Former Maine health commissioner and Republican gubernatorial candidate Mary Mayhew has been tapped by the Trump administration to lead Medicaid, the health insurance program that covers more than 70 million low-income Americans. Seema Verma, head of the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said in a statement Monday that Mayhew has been named deputy […]
Posted inMaine
How each candidate for governor would tackle Medicaid expansion, the opioid crisis and protecting Maine’s most vulnerable
Health care policy is a frequent topic on the Maine gubernatorial campaign trail, with issues such as Medicaid expansion and the opioid crisis turning up in campaign literature, advertisements, on the stump and at debates. Maine voters approved Medicaid expansion by a 59 to 41 percent margin in November 2017, which would make 70,000 low-income […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Judge hears Medicaid expansion case
A Superior Court judge heard arguments Thursday about whether the LePage administration is obligated to expand Medicaid without funding from the Legislature, even as the state continues to turn away thousands of applicants for coverage. In the latest round of legal wrangling over Medicaid expansion, lawyers for Maine Equal Justice Partners and Gov. Paul LePage […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Advocacy group makes new legal move to block LePage’s efforts to reject Medicaid expansion
An advocacy group for low-income Mainers that’s suing the LePage administration went to court this week to try to erase any reference to Gov. Paul LePage’s request to federal officials to reject Medicaid expansion. In early September, LePage filed a form with Medicaid – called a State Plan Amendment – that’s typically a routine document […]