While Maine voters have made it clear that they want Medicaid coverage expanded to include more people in the state, Governor Paul LePage is taking steps to impose a time limit on its recipients, which advocates warn threatens the lives of tens of thousands of the state’s most vulnerable people.
It was reported last week that the Trump administration is considering allowing states impose a cap for the length of time someone can receive Medicaid, the joint state-and federal health plan that specifically aids people with low-income or living with disabilities.
It was also revealed that Maine is among the states that has applied for such a waiver. In a letter dated August 1, 2017, LePage appointee Ricker Hamilton, who was then serving as acting commission of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, requested approval to cap Medicaid coverage for able-bodied adults after three months in any three-year period, allowing enrollees to apply for an additional month under “exceptional circumstances.”
This in a state where voters have indicated they want more, not less, from the government program, overwhelmingly approving Medicaid expansion to 80,000 additional recipients on the ballot last November.
In comparison, Wisconsin has requested to limit lifetime coverage for childless adults to four years. Kansas is seeking a cap after three years while Arizona and Utah have requested a five-year lifetime limit.
McClatchy health care reporter Tony Pugh observed that “if approved, the dramatic policy change would recast government-subsidized health coverage as temporary assistance.”
On Twitter, Amy Fried, who chairs the political science department at the University of Maine, pointed out that before the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), private insurance companies would impose similar caps that would “cut off treatment of cancer patients,” among others with long-term or terminal illness.
“Lifetime Medicaid caps could be called the real death panel,” she continued. “Lifetime coverage limits on Medicaid (or any health insurance) could leave people with chronic and severe illnesses and injuries without treatment and/or prone to bankruptcy. Should not be adopted in Maine — or anywhere else.”
Brad Woodhouse, campaign director of the national coalition Protect Our Care, declared the proposal “a new low for the Trump Administration.”
“Allowing states to impose arbitrary time limits on access to health care would leave innocent Americans with nowhere to turn and fundamentally change and weaken the popular Medicaid program, which serves millions of American seniors, children, and people with disabilities,” Woodhouse added.
The move marks the latest attempt by the federal government to roll-back Medicaid coverage after failing to repeal the ACA last year. Just last month, the Trump administration issued new guidance allowing states to impose work restrictions on Medicaid recipients, which both LePage and Republican Representative Bruce Poliquin lauded as a way to get people “out of the trap of government dependency.”
“Individual states like Maine, each with their own unique communities, know best how to administer their welfare programs and how best to serve the interests of their own citizens,” Poliquin, whose district includes more than 93,000 Medicaid recipients, declared in his official release.
The Second District representative, who is currently up for re-election, has routinely voted to cut health care, including supporting the repeal of the ACA.
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