Gov. Paul LePage disappointed with GOP health plan

Gov. Paul LePage is back after a weeks-long trip through Florida and Washington, D.C. But he’ll be headed back to the nation’s capital later this week to protest the House Republicans’ plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. LePage said he doesn’t like the plan as it was unveiled Monday.

“Right now I am very, very discouraged and disappointed with what House Republicans are introducing,” LePage said Tuesday during a radio interview on WVOM. “We don’t know what the cost is, but based on what I see and I’m reading and what has happened over the last 15 years, I don’t think it’s an improvement. I think we’re punting the ball, is what we’re doing.”

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives released their long-awaited plan to replace the Affordable Care Act on Monday. It substitutes a system of tax credits and grants to states for federal subsidies and would wind down support for Medicaid expansion after 2020.

But it leaves in place many provisions of former President Barack Obama’s health care law — including the popular pieces that allow children to stay on parents’ health plans until age 26 and preventing insurers from charging people with pre-existing conditions more for coverage.

LePage said he supports the health insurance exchanges currently offered by the ACA because people can purchase their health insurance on a sliding scale.

“The exchanges are wonderful,” the Republican governor said. “[Patients] ought to have copays and ought to have consequences when they miss appointments. … There is nothing wrong with asking people who are able bodied to have skin in the game.”

But U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin, a Republican from Maine’s 2nd District, said in a late Monday statement that the new proposal will “bring much needed health insurance relief” to Mainers “suffocating” under increasing premiums under current law.

And Democrats aren’t showing any signs of accepting the plan, with U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat from Maine’s 1st District, saying it’ll cost many more.

“I expect my Republican colleagues not to forget the millions of Americans for whom the Affordable Care Act has been a lifesaver, including thousands in Maine who’ve shared their stories with me,” she said.