Maine’s Governor Pushes Stricter Medicaid Eligibility

Maine Gov. Paul LePage said he will continue to press for a major change in the Medicaid benefits that Maine bestows more generously than all but a handful of other states, the Bangor Daily News reports.

The governor said legislators rejected his plan to cut eligibility for participation in MaineCare, the state’s version of Medicaid, from 200 percent of the federal poverty level to 133 percent, the rate in 47 states, but he added, “We’re going to go back at it in January.”

“We should not be more generous than these other states, but we are and we have been and it needs to stop,” he said, raising concerns that Maine’s looser eligibility will prompt people to move to the state for better benefits.

Critics of the plan said it would remove 30,000 Maine residents from Medicaid coverage and that the 133 percent level of $14,484 for a single adult and $29,726 is not sufficient for people to afford private health insurance.

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