AUGUSTA — Health care advocates in Maine say they have more than enough signatures to get a referendum to expand Medicaid coverage on the November ballot. Now it’s up to the Secretary of State’s office to verify the signatures. The Mainers for Health Care campaign said Wednesday the additional federal funding would cover tens of thousands […]
Medicaid
Posted inLewiston-Auburn
Sha Na Na singer seeks to save Medicare
LEWISTON — Doo-wop star Jon Bauman, former lead singer of Sha Na Na, took the stage Tuesday at The Dolard & Priscilla Gendron Franco Center as part of a campaign to protect Medicare and Social Security. The performer, better known as “Bowzer,” said Lewiston was chosen as the first of many planned stops across the […]
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Posted inMaine, sj-web
Group wants to put Medicaid expansion on Maine ballot
PORTLAND — An Augusta advocacy group says its signature drive to get Medicaid expansion on Maine’s ballot has been “hugely successful.” The Portland Press Herald reports the organization, Maine Equal Justice Partners, expects to make an announcement Thursday. Expanding Medicaid would insure about 80,000 people. The group says many of the signatures needed to put […]
Posted inMaine
By one vote Maine Senate agrees to expand Medicaid, bill faces all-but-certain veto
AUGUSTA – By a single vote Tuesday night, Sen. Tom Saviello, R-Wilton, secured approval of his proposal to expand the state’s Medicaid system, MaineCare, by using federal funds to buy private insurance for the state’s poorest residents. But Saviello was joined by only two of his Republican colleagues, as well as the entire caucus of […]
Posted inMaine
Wilton Republican wants to fight drug crisis with Medicaid expansion
The move to expand is backed by the state’s hospitals, as well as advocates for the poor and a large portion of Maine’s law-enforcement community. “Increasing access to MaineCare coverage means increasing access to mental health counseling, drug addiction treatment and counseling and preventive health care, providing measurable cost-savings and beneficial health outcomes across Maine,” Saviello […]
Posted inLivermore Falls Advertiser, Maine
Sen. Tom Saviello offers Medicaid expansion bill to fight addiction
AUGUSTA — Hoping to tap readily available federal funding that could help fight Maine’s heroin addiction crisis, a pair of state GOP lawmakers is again proposing legislation to expand Maine’s Medicaid system. Sen. Tom Saviello, R-Wilton, who has previously supported an expansion of the state and federally sponsored health insurance program for low-income families and […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
ACLU, abortion providers sue DHHS over MaineCare rule
AUGUSTA — Abortion providers and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the state Tuesday in a bid to overturn a longstanding rule limiting low-income women’s access to a state-funded abortion. It’s buried deep within a set of rules developed in 1981 and last revised in 2010, before Gov. Paul LePage took office. […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
MaineCare transportation costs rose 12 percent in 2014
PORTLAND — State documents say the MaineCare transportation program cost $5.4 million more to operate in the 2014-15 fiscal year than previous years. The Portland Press Herald reports the $50.3 million spent in 2014-15 was 12 percent higher than the $44.9 million cost a year earlier. The program came under fire in 2013 for missed […]
Posted inOp-Eds
Problems arise for Medicare, Medicaid
WASHINGTON — It was 50 years ago that President Lyndon Johnson flew to Independence, Missouri and, with former President Harry Truman at his side, signed into law the legislation creating Medicare and Medicaid. It was a seminal moment in American political history. For three decades, liberals and conservatives had warred over government health insurance. “Medicare […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Supreme Court won’t hear Maine appeal over Medicaid cuts
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it would stay out of a dispute between Gov. Paul LePage and the federal government over whether Maine can eliminate Medicaid coverage for thousands of low-income young adults. The justices’ refusal to hear the case means LePage’s administration must adhere to a lower court’s ruling to continue providing […]