Ignoring the binding vote, Gov. Paul LePage has refused to expand the program, blasting it as a needless, budget-busting form of welfare. He vetoed five expansion bills before the issue made the ballot, plus a spending bill this month that provided about $60 million in funding for the first year. Earlier this month he went so far as to say he would go to jail “before I put the state in red ink” by adding at least 70,000 more low-income adults to the state’s Medicaid population of 264,000. The showdown is on the extreme end of tensions playing out this election year in a number of Republican-controlled states that have resisted expanding Medicaid under the ACA. Following Maine’s lead, advocacy groups in Idaho, Nebraska, and Utah have gathered enough signatures to get Medicaid expansion measures on their state ballots this November, although Nebraska’s have yet to be certified. (Abby Goodnough, New York Times)
