Sen Susan Collins, R-Maine, said in a recent interview that she favors allowing her state to expand Medicaid under Obamacare, through a similar framework as that of Indiana.
Indiana’s expansion, which uses a waiver sought and approved under the Obama administration, includes managed care plans as well as the requirement for enrollees to contribute to health savings accounts. The waiver was obtained when Vice President Mike Pence was governor of Indiana and the current administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Seema Verma, was the architect behind it.
Collins’s position on Medicaid expansion was noted in a New York Times profile about her role in the healthcare debates occurring in the Senate. Her centrist approach deviates from that of many other Republicans who are seeking to repeal and replace Obamacare, and she has introduced her own bill with Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La. The bill, the Patient Freedom Act, allows states to keep portions of Obamacare or to craft their own programs, such as through implementing a system that would auto-enroll uninsured residents into healthcare plans that are funded by federal tax credits.
“There is no denying that the Affordable Care Act has made insurance available to millions of Americans and allowed people to leave corporate jobs and start businesses,” Collins said, speaking of Obamacare. “We are disproportionately affected, which is one reason I’ve spent so much energy on this issue.”
Under the bill passed by the House in May to repeal and replace Obamacare, the American Health Care Act, Medicaid expansion would be rolled back, reducing funding on the program by more than $800 billion. Collins, whose state is largely inhabited by poor, rural and older residents, has openly expressed concerns about these projections.
Maine’s legislature tried to pass Medicaid expansion several times, but plans were vetoed by Republican Gov. Paul LePage. Collins has said she is weighing a gubernatorial run.
