AUGUSTA, MAINE (August 24, 2017) – Efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act are continuing with a new bill that would cut Maine’s federal funding for health care by $180 million by 2026, according to a new report by the Washington, DC-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Maine would be hard hit by the plan, which cuts 50 percent or more of federal funding for health coverage by 2026, compared with current law.
“The only right way forward with health care reform is through an inclusive, bipartisan approach that doesn’t take health care away from millions of people,” said Ann Woloson of Maine Equal Justice Partners. “We’re proud that Maine’s senators support this effort, but are deeply concerned about new efforts to undermine a legitimate public process.”
Multiple efforts to repeal the ACA have failed thanks to the efforts of a majority of Americans who have opposed taking coverage away from millions of people. Maine US Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King we’re critical votes in the effort to protect the health care for Mainers.
Both King and Collins have said that they support a transparent and bipartisan effort to strengthen the country’s health care system without taking coverage away from millions of people and gutting Medicaid.
US Sens. Bill Cassidy and Lindsey Graham are reportedly working with the White House to block the emerging, bipartisan bath and instead to push their own proposal to repeal the ACA.
“The plan would eliminate tax credits that help 70,000 moderate-income Mainers afford marketplace coverage and subsidies that help low-income Mainers with out-of-pocket costs. These cuts will hit older Mainers, and those living in the state’s rural areas especially hard, because the sticker price of insurance is so high in these areas. Beyond the impacts on individuals and families, the new proposal would drive up costs for the state and destabilize Maine’s health care system,” said James Myall of the Maine Center for Economic Policy.
The Cassidy-Graham proposal:
- Shifts costs and risks to states;
- Eliminates the ACA’s Medicaid expansion;
- Eliminates tax credits that help moderate-income Mainers afford marketplace coverage;
- Deeply cuts and caps Medicaid, costing Maine an estimated $180 million by 2026.
- Causes millions of people to lose their health care coverage.
The Together for Medicaid (TFM) is a collaborative effort by organizations from across the state that have joined together in opposition to significant changes to Medicaid’s financing structure that would undermine the program.
The TFM leadership team includes Maine Equal Justice Partners, Consumers for Affordable Health Care, Maine People’s Resource Center, the Maine Council on Aging, Maine Children’s Alliance, New Mainer’s Public Health Initiative, and the Consumer Council System of Maine.
The Maine Center for Economic Policy is a nonpartisan policy research organization that provides citizens, policymakers, advocates, and media with credible and rigorous economic analysis that advances economic justice and prosperity for all Maine people.
To read the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities new report.
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