LAWMAKERS STAND ALONGSIDE MAINERS WHOSE ‘LIVES ARE ON THE LINE’
Mainers Rally to Urge Expansion of MaineCare Healthcare
AUGUSTA–Today, nearly fifty people rallied at the State House urging lawmakers to expand MaineCare health care.
Senate Majority Leader Troy Jackson of Allagash, along with House Speaker Mark Eves, accepted the petitions signed by nearly 7,500 Mainers across the state.
Senator Jackson, Speaker Eves, and Senator Haskell receive petitions in support of health care expansion
“Today dozens of Mainers cared enough to come to Augusta and tell their story and the story of thousands of others whose lives are on the line. It’s shameful that some Republican lawmakers, who already have health insurance, are turning their back on people who without health care will undoubtedly only get sicker,” said Senate Majority Leader Jackson.
As of January 1, nearly 25,000 Mainers, including 15,000 working parents whose children depend on them to stay healthy to go to work each day, lost health care coverage as a result of Governor LePage’s veto of a measure to accept federal health care dollars to expand Medicaid.
“There couldn’t be stronger evidence that we need to accept this offer and move one step closer to ensuring a family doctor for every family,” said Assistant Senate Majority Leader Anne Haskell of Portland during today’s event. “The time to act is now. It is the right thing to do for the people of our state and our economy.”
According to a January 2014 report from the Maine Center for Economic Policy Maine will receive $256 million a year in new federal funds by 2016 if the state adopts the MaineCare expansion. With each day that passes, Maine loses out on an additional $700,000 per day, $500 per minute.
The report also shows that Maine will miss out on as many as 4,400 jobs and more than half a billion dollars in annual economic activity by 2016, if we do not accept these funds.
The Legislature is considering two measures that would allow Maine to accept the federal government’s offer to expand Medicaid at no cost to the state for the first three years. LD 1640, “An Act to Enhance the Stability and Predictability of Health Care Costs for Returning Veterans and Others by Addressing the Issues Associated with Hospital Charity Care and Bad Debt,” is sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Jackson and LD 1578, “An Act To Increase Health Security by Expanding Federally Funded Health Care for Maine People,” is sponsored by Speaker Eves.