At the center of Gov. Paul LePage’s latest push to reform the state’s Medicaid program is the assertion that many of those who benefit from the health insurance program should help pay for it.
People with coverage through work pony up for monthly premiums, after all. And those with taxpayer-funded health insurance should face financial consequences if they miss doctor’s appointments or make expensive trips to the emergency room for minor ailments, the administration’s thinking goes.
But critics of the new proposal, which will require approval from the federal government, argue that even a small monthly premium is unaffordable for many who rely on the program for low-income Mainers. Patients can have legitimate reasons for failing to make medical appointments and resorting to the ER too often, they say.
These provisions, as part of the LePage administration’s broader proposal, drew several dozen people to a public hearing Wednesday at the Cross Insurance Center in Portland.
Charging monthly premiums
Under LePage’s plan, “able-bodied” adults on MaineCare would be charged between $14 and $66 per month in premiums, depending on their income. Those who don’t pay the premium would lose their coverage after a 60-day grace period. This is among the provisions that would “support a level of personal responsibility” among MaineCare beneficiaries, the administration wrote in its proposal.
In other states that charge such premiums, collecting the monthly payments from beneficiaries is costing more than the program brings in, Mitchell Stein, an independent health policy consultant, said at Wednesday’s hearing. For example, Arkansas spent $12 million last year to implement its premium program after collecting only $384,000 from members the previous year, he said.
Critics also argue that many people who are eligible for MaineCare can’t afford to pay monthly premiums, so they’ll get dropped from the program or won’t bother to apply in the first place. Without insurance, they’ll likely fail to get needed medical care, grow sicker and end up costing the health system more, according to research by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
The County is pleased to feature content from our sister company, Bangor Daily News. To read the rest of “Hidden costs lurk in LePage plan to charge, penalize MaineCare recipients,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writer Jackie Farwell, please follow this link to the BDN online.
