Despite overwhelming public approval of a ballot initiative to expand Medicaid in the state, Maine's Republican Gov. Paul LePage was quick to announce his intentions to block the measure, proving yet again that the Republican party is drastically out of touch with the needs and wants of the American people.
The ballot initiative on Tuesday allowed voters to decide if they wanted to expand Medicaid to an estimated 70,000 residents. The measure passed with support from 59 percent of voters, while 41 percent opposed, according to NBC News.
The New York Times elaborated on the initiative:
The health law gives states the option of allowing any citizen with income up to 138 percent of the poverty level — $16,642 for an individual, $24,600 for a family of four — to qualify for Medicaid, which states and the federal government both pitch in to pay for.
Under the Affordable Care Act, the federal government picked up the cost of new enrollees under Medicaid expansion for the first three years and will continue to pay at least 90 percent. States cover a significantly larger portion of the expenses for the rest of their Medicaid population.
In the past, LePage has already vetoed at least five attempts to expand Medicaid and has said the most recent attempt to expand the Obama-era program was "fiscally irresponsible."
"Medicaid expansion will be ruinous to Maine’s budget," LePage added, NBC reported.
"The truth is that Medicaid expansion will just give able-bodied adults free health care," LePage said in a recent radio interview, according to the Times. "We don’t mind helping people get health care, but it should not be free. 'Free' is very expensive to somebody."
LePage would find difficulty in blocking the measure, however, because he doesn't have the power to simply veto it. Instead, LePage could delay the measure, the Times reported. The state legislature could make an effort to block the measure, but the state House is controlled by Democrats, and Republicans only have control over the Senate by one vote, so blocking such a popular measure would be a risk.
The governor's veto threat comes just days after he finally vetoed a measure passed by Maine voter during the 2016 election that would legalize the sale of recreational marijuana.
“The dangers of legalizing marijuana and normalizing its use in our society cannot be understated,” LePage wrote in a letter explaining why he overruled the voters of his state.
Tuesday's ballot initiative still proved to be significant as similar progressive measures could land on ballots across the country in coming elections such as Utah and Idaho, according to Jonathan Schleifer, executive director of the Fairness Project.
"We need to end the conversation around repealing Obamacare and make it very clear, as we did last night, that folks want to expand it," Schleifer told NBC. "We’re not waiting until 2020, we’re going to get as much of this done in 2018 as we can."
The future of Medicaid expansion in Maine is still uncertain due to the threats to block the measure from LePage, but it falls in line with much of the Republican Party's agenda.
Congressional Republicans miserably failed several attempts over the course of months to pass different variations of health bills that would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. Much of the votes didn't land for the Republicans because the public made it clear that they wanted to keep their health care. While Obamacare certainly has its flaws, polls show that support for single-payer and a progressive outlook on health care is growing quite substantially in the U.S.
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