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Democratic Leaders Present Medicaid Expansion Bills to HHS Committee

Posted Monday, January 27, 2014 in Politics


Speaker of the House Mark Eves (D- N Berwick) presented his bill, LD 1578, “An Act To Increase Health Security by Expanding Federally Funded Health Care for Maine People” before the Health and Human Services Committee in a packed public hearing on January . Here is a clip of his address to committee members (link to released text of his prepared remarks).

Over the past few months, I’ve worked to address some of the concerns I’ve heard from lawmakers. This bill is tri-partisan –it has four Republican co-sponsors, one independent and five Democrats.

It includes good-faith effort to bring all parties together:

● A sunset provision after 3 years, prior to the decline in federal funding to 90 percent.

● An opt-out provision if the federal government breaks its commitment before the 3 year period

● It requires a co-pay from individuals utilizing the program.

● Creates a MaineCare Stabilization Fund to pool savings accrued from accepting the federal dollars

This is a true compromise.

Senate Majority Leader Troy Jackson (D-Aroostook) then presented his bill, 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 designed to address the specific needs of Maine’s service members and other Mainers who find themselves excluded from the existing Affordable Care Act. Here is video of the senator’s address to the committee and his prepared speech.

(Note: As access to healthcare for all Mainers has long been a personal cause for Senator Jackson, he went off script on occasion to stress the need.)

Here is a portion of his statement (link to rest of prepared remarks)

I am the primary sponsor of LD 1640 and a co-sponsor of LD 1578, presented by Speaker Eves. These bills will secure $263 million dollars from the federal government to expand Medicaid coverage to 69,500 hard working, deserving Mainers – including veterans. Right now these Mainers face a future without health insurance and without adequate access to necessary, healing and life-saving medical care.

Let me be clear: health care is not welfare — not to me and not to a single one of the 69,500 Mainers who will be left out in the cold if we do not bring them into our healthcare system.

It is pure common sense to take the opportunity we have right now and accept federal funds to expand Medicaid in Maine, to help those working Mainers who find themselves locked out of access to health insurance and to take the next step toward a unified, fair health care system open to all Mainers. There are 2,700 veterans in Maine who would become eligible for care when we expand Medicaid. Don’t assume that all veterans young and old automatically receive care through the Veterans Administration. If we do not expand Medicaid, veterans will lose out – and perhaps live out their days without a basic right they fought for: and that’s the right to healthcare.

Both bills were held over during a HHS work session last week for a vote; it remains to be seen when they will eventually go before the Legislature.



