In 2017,
Lawmakers ended the legislative session without approving a funding package and, last month, a progressive anti-poverty group sued the state in an effort to force it to begin expanding the government-funded health insurance program for low-income and disabled people.
During oral arguments Thursday morning, a lawyer for
[Advocates take Maine Medicaid expansion fight with LePage to court]
Under the voter-approved law, the state was supposed to have sent an expansion plan to the
A lawyer for
"Tell the commissioner he has to comply with the law," said
But a private attorney representing Health and Human Services Commissioner
"We have a duty to execute unless it is not funded and this is a question of tens of millions if not hundreds of millions in funding," said
Strawbridge has represented LePage in cases where
[
Murphy said that she clearly does not have authority to command lawmakers to fund the program, but the two attorneys disagreed on whether ordering the submission of a expansion plan would entail doing so. The judge reserved her ruling for a later date, but said she intends to issue it as soon as possible.
The case comes as the latest maneuver in
LePage has five times vetoed Medicaid expansion efforts passed by the Legislature, and Murphy's decision is likely to be appealed to state's highest court regardless of which argument she accepts.
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