House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross of Portland proposed a bill last Tuesday that would expand the accessibility of MaineCare Health coverage to all low-income noncitizens according to Portland Press Herald.
Talbot Ross sponsored a similar bill in 2021; however, Gov. Janet Mills opted for a smaller expansion in her supplemental budget instead, granting MaineCare Health coverage to only noncitizens who are pregnant or under 21 years of age.
Kathy Kilrain del Rio, advocacy and program director for Maine Equal Justice, says the proposal would reinstate a bill that had provided MaineCare to noncitizens since the 1990s until former Gov. Paul LePage restricted access to the program for almost all noncitizens in 2011.
New bill L.D. 199, Kilrain del Rio says, would grant low-income noncitizens access to preventative health services such as doctor’s visits and medication.
It is unclear how much the bill would cost, but Talbot Ross’s original estimate when the bill was first proposed in 2021 was almost $8 million.
Gov. Janet Mills has not yet made her position on the proposal public.
House and State Republicans, the majority of whom are predicted to be against the proposal, say they have yet to see the bill in writing.
