Paul LePage must submit expanded Medicaid Obamacare plan, Judge rules

A judge in Maine ordered Republican Gov. Paul LePage Monday to forge ahead with a voter-approved plan to expand Medicaid under Obamacare.

Superior Court Judge Michaela Murphy said the administration must submit a plan for extending coverage to about 70,000 more residents to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by June 11.

For years, Mr. LePage has resisted expanding Medicaid — the federal-state insurance program for the poor — to people making up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level.

Yet fed-up voters demanded it in a ballot measure in November.

The governor said he wouldn’t move ahead until state lawmakers found a way to fund the state’s share of the cost — it will reach 10 percent in 2020 and beyond — without raising taxes on families or businesses, using one-time budget “gimmicks” or raiding a budget-stabilization fund.

The Maine Equal Justice Partners, a nonprofit legal aid group, sued after Mr. LePage missed the ballot measure’s April 3 deadline to outline the state’s expansion plans to federal officials.

Judge Murphy said the governor couldn’t call the shots any longer.

“The Court is not persuaded that the executive branch is excused from clear statutory obligations by the legislature’s failure to follow through with legislative obligations — as defined by the executive branch,” wrote the judge, who was appointed by former Gov. John E. Baldacci in 2007 and re-appointed by Mr. LePage in 2015.

If Maine moves forward, it would be the 33rd state to expand Medicaid under the 2010 health law.

Virginia’s legislature voted to expand as part of a two-year budget last week, ending a multiyear blockade by GOP lawmakers.