Maine Gov. Paul LePage is heading to the nation’s capital today to tell officials to scrap the health care plan backed by President Donald Trump and start over.

“Let’s do it right” instead of rushing to get something approved swiftly, LePage told a Portland radio station.

The governor told WGAN that he is going to Washington this morning with his health and human services commissioner, Mary Mayhew, to talk with congressional leaders, senators, federal Department of Health and Human Services chief Tom Price and “people at the White House.”

He said what’s needed is to “repeal, replace and reform” the Affordable Care Act instead of rushing to put a flawed alternative in place.

LePage this week quickly took a stand against the health care proposal put forward by U.S. House leaders — which Trump endorsed — because he feared it would hurt Mainers.

He said the proposed plan would deliver a set amount of health care money per person in the states, which “would be an absolute disaster” for Maine because it has the highest average age of any state. Older people are more likely to require more costly medical care.

LePage said Maine has “a dire need for higher amounts” of funding than states with younger populations.

He said he’s worried that if the measure were to pass, it would put Maine back into a situation where its hospitals were suffering financially like they did during the last recession.

The governor said he’s also unhappy with the plan’s call to expand coverage through 2020 and then presumably start shifting the costs of caring for all those people onto the states.

He said the federal government needs either “to lock the door now” to keep more people from signing on or agree to maintain funding into the future.

“You can’t just put it on the taxpayers, and that’s really what I’m objecting to,” said LePage, who was in Washington a week ago for a conference and other events.

He did not lay out what he’d like to see from Trump and the Congress beyond calling for them to take their time and come up with a good proposal.

“If you’re not interested in fixing it,” LePage told officials, “then leave it alone.”

During his weekly talk on WGAN, the governor also said he’s been talking “at least twice a week” with other governors about policy initiatives they would like to push nationally.

He said the political warfare between Republicans and Democrats that “started with Watergate and hasn’t stopped” shouldn’t take the place of policy debates. He said, though, the squabbling helps keep reporters employed.

LePage also said he hasn’t decided whether to run for a U.S. Senate seat in 2018, when independent Angus King is up for re-election.

After the state budget is passed, he said, “then I can start looking” and “my wife and I can start talking about what I want to do when I grow up.”

Gov. Paul LePage
AP