Maine’s natural resource agencies’ chiefs say Medicaid is gutting their departments

http://bangordailynews.com/2014/02/26/politics/maines-natural-resource-agencies-chiefs-say-medicaid-is-gutting-their-departments/

AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. Paul LePage’s administration on Wednesday made clear its fierce opposition to a new Republican-led compromise plan on Medicaid expansion and said the administration would not participate in any negotiations on the bill.

“If expansion is on the table, absolutely not,” said Mary Mayhew, commissioner of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, when asked whether there was any room for compromise.

During a large press conference, Mayhew was joined by the commissioners of the state’s natural resource agencies, who said growth in the state’s Medicaid program was eating away at their budgets.

The natural resource commissioners — from the Departments of Agriculture, Marine Resources, Environmental Protection and Inland Fisheries & Wildlife — don’t often get involved with policy debates outside their agencies. Their involvement in the Medicaid expansion debate represented the strongest push yet by LePage to gain traction with his core message in recent weeks: that Medicaid spending is “cannibalizing” other state programs.

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More outlandish and laughable lies from the LePage Regime.

yup