Maine Committee OKs Governor’s Plan to Pay $480M Medicaid Debt

A committee within Maine’s legislature unanimously approved Gov. Paul LePage’s bill that would allow the state to issue revenue bonds to pay its $183.5 million share of Medicaid debt owed to hospitals, according to a report by the Bangor Daily News.

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Combined with federal matching funds, the MaineCare program owes the state’s 39 hospitals more than $480 million. The governor has pushed hard to pay off the debt using revenue from liquor sales and bond sales, although he vetoed an earlier deal backed by Democratic lawmakers that was tied to an expansion of Medicaid under the federal healthcare reform law.

 

Maine must pay its share of the debt by Oct. 1 in order to make the most of federal matching rates before they drop, which would cost the state an additional $5 million, according to the report.

 

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