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Medicaid enrollment lower than expected since expansion

Please go to the Portland Press Herald to read the full article. 

Some 70,000 Maine residents were expected to qualify under the new standards, but only about 26,000 have done so.

By Marina Villeneuve, Associated Press

~~Excerpt

Thousands fewer Mainers than expected have signed up for Medicaid in the first six months of a statewide expansion of the program.

New enrollment projections had ranged from 50,000 by mid-2019 to 70,000. But so far, just over 26,000 Mainers are currently enrolled under the expansion, according to Department of Health and Human Services figures that were analyzed by the Associated Press.Enrollment is lowest in some of the counties hit hardest by fatal drug overdoses.Democratic Gov. Janet Mills won in November on promises to finally expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, and to ensure Mainers can receive substance use treatment amid the state’s opioid crisis.Mills’ Republican predecessor, Paul LePage, vetoed five Medicaid expansion bills, kicked thousands of childless adults from the state’s Medicaid rolls and blocked expansion until he left office in January over his concerns that new enrollment would be too much of a financial burden for the state.

Gov. Janet Mills expanded Medicaid eligibility as soon as she took office, but enrollment so far is behind expectations.

 

 

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