Medicaid Expansion Slowed by LePage Administration

[TexasTowelie]

The LePage administration is telling two key legislative committees that it will not take any steps to implement the expansion of Medicaid that was approved by voters until money is appropriated to pay for it.

Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Commissioner Ricker Hamilton outlined the administration's stance in a letter to the co-chairs of the Appropriations and Health and Human Services committees.

The co-chairs of the committees say the Medicaid expansion law requires that the department take several steps before it starts accepting new Medicaid applications July 1. The law requires that the DHHS file a formal Medicaid change plan with federal officials. The feds pay for roughly two-thirds of the cost of the existing program and the state pays the rest. The new law also requires the DHHS to write and adopt the rules to govern the expansion.

“This is the executive branch function, is to carry out the laws,” says Rep. Patty Hymanson from York, who co-chairs the HHS committee. “This is the law. This is their mandate. They need to do it.”

Read more: http://mainepublic.org/post/medicaid-expansion-slowed-lepage-administration