PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - A judge said she will weigh in soon on the future of voter-approved Medicaid expansion, as the Democratic governor-elect Wednesday vowed to expand coverage as soon as she enters office in January.
Justice Michaela Murphy heard oral arguments Wednesday in Superior Court. Pro-expansion advocates continued arguing Republican Gov. Paul LePage’s administration broke the law by stalling expansion, while the governor’s outside lawyer argued the matter is up to lawmakers and not the courts.
Nearly three out of five Mainers last fall approved expanding Medicaid to 70,000 low-income residents, following five Medicaid expansion attempts that LePage vetoed. But the referendum didn’t include a funding source for Maine’s share, and LePage has opposed expansion over his financial concerns.
Democratic Attorney General Janet Mills, who won Tuesday’s gubernatorial election, said Wednesday that she will “absolutely” propose a plan to fund Maine’s share of Medicaid expansion, which could eventually cost Maine alone $54.5 million each year. LePage has informally proposed taxing hospitals to pay for expansion, though the idea has caught criticism from the Maine Hospital Association.
LePage vetoed a bill to fund Medicaid expansion’s first year with budgetary surplus and one-time tobacco settlement funds. The governor dismissed the bill as relying on “budgetary gimmicks,” and lawmakers failed to override his veto.
A pro-Medicaid expansion group says LePage’s administration is violating the spirit of a recent court order to submit paperwork for $525 million in eventual annual federal funding for Medicaid expansion. Maine submitted the paperwork, but LePage urged federal regulators to reject it.
Justice Murphy is tasked with deciding whether lawmakers must specifically set aside money before expanding Medicaid. She will also weigh in on Medicaid expansion’s official start date.
Maine has enough existing Medicaid funds in theory to cover expansion costs through May 2019, according to the Legislature’s nonpartisan fiscal office.
But the LePage administration claims that the money could run out faster if enrollments exceed expectations.
A private lawyer for the LePage administration is also arguing that Maine lawmakers have at times specifically set aside money for previous Medicaid expansions.
“It was widely understood and was made explicit to voters that additional legislation was going to be necessary to implement the expansion of the program,” attorney Patrick Strawbridge said.
The governor should implement the laws and then deal with budget questions later, argued Charles Dingman, lawyer for Maine Equal Justice Partners, which sued LePage’s administration this spring for blocking expansion.
It comes down to whether Maine’s executive branch has the authority to stall a law approved by voters at the polls simply because of a policy disagreement, argued lawyer James Kilbreth, lawyer for Maine Equal Justice Partners.
State government, he added, must implement laws rather than say: “’Never mind, I don’t like this law.’”
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