Maine’s Medicaid Vote a Test of Obamacare Support
So advocates of expanding Medicaid decided to go straight to voters. They collected enough signatures to put the issue to voters in November.
If passed, the state would become the 33rd to expand Medicaid and signal support for former
In the last few weeks, Trump weakened the Affordable Care Act's birth control mandate, signed a wide-ranging executive order that, among other things, allows for more unregulated plans, and announced the end of subsidies that help low-income consumers buy insurance.
Under Obama's Affordable Care Act (ACA), the federal government pays 100 percent of the costs of increasing Medicaid eligibility to people who make incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty line, which is
"In many ways, the debate about health care starts and ends in
Opponents of the
"We already did this, we already tried this experiment. It can't come back," says
Supporters of the measure say that with the federal government still picking up most of the tab for Medicaid expansion, there's no reason not to try. Farmer cites the fact that the legislature has already passed it several times, and that the major health-care associations in the state have endorsed the measure.
"It's hard not to feel that momentum," he says.
The measure has been a big point of contention in the state in recent months.
The supporters have outraised the opponents four to one. Supporting committees have almost
There hasn't been any formal polling on the initiative, and neither spokesperson wanted to speculate where public opinion stands. Farmer, however, says that "residents are more engaged and better informed on the topic than ever before."
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