Statement of Representative McClellan on final health exchange advisory committee meeting

AUGUSTA – Rep. Michael McClellan (R-Raymond) was the House Republican member of the Maine Health Exchange Advisory Committee, which met for the final time Monday at the Statehouse and was established by the legislature this year to study the implementation of ObamaCare in Maine. McClellan is pleased that the committee did not take sides in the debate over whether to expand Maine’s medical welfare system under ObamaCare’s promise of partial funding. 

 

“The one thing we all agreed on was that the more people who have coverage, the better,” said McClellan. “Medicaid expansion under ObamaCare, however, would be the biggest fiscal mistake in Maine’s history. As we see with the latest data on the statewide health insurance reform law republicans passed here in Maine in 2011, there are good, market-based alternatives to welfare. Overall, I’m glad that the committee was able to meet over the course of the past several weeks and hear from experts on the dramatic implications of ObamaCare. The more information we have, the better off we’ll be.” 

Background: 

 Maine DHHS estimates that Medicaid expansion would cost state taxpayers $150 million by Financial Year 2020-21.

 Medicaid has doubled as a share of the state budget over the past 15 years.

 Maine’s Medicaid program is the third largest in the country by enrollment.

 Maine’s Medicaid-induced shortfall in the last biennial budget was over $200 million.

 Past expansions of Medicaid have been blamed for the $500 million state debt to hospitals that Republicans recently paid off.