The Maine legislature has failed to override Republican Gov. Paul LePage’s veto of Medicaid expansion in the Pine Tree State.
The 85-58 vote cast Monday was short of the two-thirds majority needed to force through the funding bill lawmakers had passed earlier to expand Medicaid. The expansion would have been funded mostly by the federal government, but also with an additional $60 million in state funds.
The state Supreme Court will also be weighing in on the decision. Voters in November passed Medicaid expansion through a ballot measure that had the support of 59 percent of voters. Under the law, Maine was supposed to submit an application for expansion to the federal government by April 3 and have the program expanded by July 2. Advocates sued after Maine missed its deadline.
LePage has said he won’t expand the program until lawmakers find a way to pay for it. One idea that has been floated is a hospital tax, which other states have done.
The expansion, which was created under Obamacare, would expand the government-funded Medicaid program to anyone making less than roughly $16,800 a year, including childless and able-bodied adults. An estimated 70,000 Mainers would be added to the Medicaid rolls as a consequence.
Under Obamacare, all states were originally intended to expand Medicaid. But a Supreme Court decision made the provision optional. The law specified that the federal government was to cover 100 percent of the expansion costs beginning in 2014 but that support dwindles to 90 percent by 2020, giving states responsibility to pick up the rest. Seventeen states have not expanded the Medicaid program.
