Legislative Panel Advances Measure to Provide Health Care to 70,000 Mainers
AUGUSTA—This afternoon, the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee advanced a measure to accept the federal government’s offer to expand health coverage to 70,000 Mainers including nearly 3,000 veterans.
A proposal by Senate Republican Leader Roger Katz of Augusta would accept the federal funds with a sunset provision after three years, while also putting in place a managed care plan to reduce program costs. It would also reduce the waitlist for homecare services for Mainers with intellectual disabilities, addressing a key talking point for Republican opponents.
“We’ve come so far with a compromise bill that will provide health care to tens of thousands of Maine people,” said Rep. Dick Farnsworth of Portland, the House Chair of the Committee. “Despite political pressure from the Governor and his allies, we have a Republican-sponsored health care bill that will save lives, save state dollars, and boost jobs at a time when Maine has the worst job growth in the country. ”
The health care dollars will generate 4,400 jobs and $500 million in annual economic activity in Maine by 2016, according to the Maine Center for Economic Policy.
Plus, a in Health Affairs, a leading, peer-reviewed health care journal, warned of 7,000 to 17,000 fatalities in state’s that chose not to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
If the compromise measure does not pass, 21,000 Maine people with mental illness and substance abuse conditions will lose out on health coverage, according to a new report from the American Health Counselors Association.
“Health care is a right, not a privilege,” said Senator Margaret Craven, the Senate Chair of the Health and Human Services Committee. “Yet 70,000 Maine people do not have that right. Starting today, we take the first step in ensuring 70,000 of our friends, family members, and neighbors, have access to the care they need, when they need it.”
The new measure to expand health care to 70,000 Mainers would save $3.4 million in the state’s budget in the first year alone, according to the Legislature’s nonpartisan fiscal office.
The Kaiser Foundation predicts savings to the state budget of $690 million over 10 years.
According to the Kaiser Foundation, accepting federal funds to expand health care will slow growth in the states’ Medicaid programs. States that chose to accept federal health care dollars to cover more of their citizens are expected to see lower rates in growth in Medicaid programs. Maine’s spending on Medicaid, per recipient, is the lowest in New England and the state ranks 26th nationally.
The bill, LD 1487 “An Act to Provide Fiscal Predictability to the MaineCare Program and Health Security to Maine People,” will now be sent to the Senate for a vote.
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