Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) said Tuesday that he wants to "find a way" to provide health insurance to the state's 70,000 uninsured, even though he vetoed legislation in April that would have done just that -- and at no cost to the state.
During a gubernatorial debate, LePage said he vetoed the Medicaid expansion billbecause it would have covered people with incomes at 400 percent of the federal poverty level. The bill would have accepted millions of dollars in federal funds for the state's MaineCare program under the Affordable Care Act, which LePage has criticized. The federal government would have paid for the entire cost of the Medicaid expansion until 2017, at which point it would lower its coverage to 90 percent.
"I do agree, there are people under the federal poverty level," LePage said. "They need to be able to go to the exchanges. The federal exchanges will allow anyone from 100 percent on up to 400 percent to quality for large subsidies. We need to maximize that aspect of it. Take those that do not qualify and then find a way to get them insurance."
LePage's comments were confusing, though, because the exchanges are part of the Affordable Care Act. The debate moderator pointed out that health care options available to low-income residents outside of the president's health care law may have unaffordable deductibles. LePage blamed that on the Affordable Care Act.
"That's ACA. I didn't put that in," he said.
When the moderator clarified he was talking about private health care options outside of the Affordable Care Act, LePage blamed that on the Affordable Care Act, too.
"Yeah, well that's ACA. That's what I'm saying," LePage said. "The ACA has changed the entire system."
LePage's Democratic challenger, Rep. Michael Michaud, said as governor he would send a bill to the state legislature on his first day in office that would take advantage of the federal Medicaid dollars.
"I'll be submitting legislation to the legislature that will cover the 70,000 Mainers who were denied access under the Affordable Care Act, and of which 3,000 were veterans," Michaud said. "Not only because it's the morally right thing to do, but the state will save over $600 million over a 10-year time frame."
We had a system for the uninsured, they WERE called County Hospitals. They're gone through privatization, a process by which property bought and paid for by the taxpayer is sold to private parties at a discount (ie. no where near what they would cost to replace) either for future votes or past favors due.
ReplyDeleteLet's see..., you could set up funding to revamp and replace a working system, or, set up a whole new form of tax and multiple layers of bureaucracy to run same while crying reform. As if throwing more money at the most expensive healthcare(?) system in the world [that ranks #36 (right there with Costa Rica)] is going to solve our healthcare crisis. You know, just like our military spending has resulted in world peace......, not.