A state court has ruled that Maine must expand its Medicaid program to low-income residents.
The ruling is a blow to Republican Gov. Paul LePage, who opposes expansion and said he would not submit a plan unless lawmakers in the state found a way to pay for it without tax increases and without taking money from the state’s surplus funds.
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services and the LePage administration have until June 11 to submit the expansion plan to the federal government, Maine Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy ruled Monday.
The provision, which was created under Obamacare, would expand the government-funded Medicaid program to anyone making less than roughly $16,800 a year. An estimated 70,000 people in the state are expected to sign up for the program.
Voters in November passed Medicaid expansion through a ballot measure that had the support of 59 percent of voters. Under the law, Maine must 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.
Under the way Obamacare was written, 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 the states responsibility to pick up the rest.
LePage has vetoed Medicaid expansion in the state five times. Seventeen states have not expanded the Medicaid program.
