Paul LePage says he'd go to jail before he expands Medicaid without funding
Source: Portland Press Herald
AUGUSTA — Gov. Paul LePage says if a court tells him he must expand Medicaid without budgeted state funding, he’d go to jail before putting Maine in “red ink.”
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Nearly three out of five voters last fall supported expanding Medicaid to between 70,000 and 80,000 Mainers by July 2, making Maine the first state to vote at the ballot box in favor of expanding the health insurance program for low-income people.
The governor is fighting a court order requiring him to submit paperwork for Maine to receive federal funding. He vetoed a bill to fund Maine’s expansion costs with $60 million in surplus and tobacco settlement funds.
The bill provided state funding that would be supplemented by more than $500 million in federal funds. Supporters say costs to the state would be less than $50 million once the expansion is fully implemented, but opponents contend the cost could be twice that, potentially upending the state budget.
LePage and his Republican allies have demanded that the Legislature provide a “sustainable” funding mechanism for the expansion, although the governor has never defined what a sustainable mechanism would be. He has recently floated the idea of taxing hospitals to raise money, but he has never made a formal legislative proposal for such a tax.
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LePage has vetoed Medicaid expansion seven times during his two terms, and his opposition has been consistently upheld by Republican allies in the House. Expansion would open the program to Mainers who earn up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. That would be a yearly income of $16,753 for an individual and $34,638 for a family of four.
Read more: https://www.pressherald.com/2018/07/12/paul-lepage-says-hed-go-to-jail-before-he-expands-medicaid/
What a dick! Legislature provided a bill to fund it and he vetoed it. Not enough votes in legislature to overturn his veto. LePage would sooner go to jail than provide health insurance to poor people. I'd love to see him go to jail for this, but that's probably not likely.
= new reply since forum marked as read
My sentiments exactly. 
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and basically your a traitor to your state.....................some things like health care are more important than fucking money Lepage........................
November 2018 cannot get here fast enough..........................vote
Put Janet Mills in the Blaine House fellow mainers.
