On this date twelve years ago, President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) into law. Since passing, the law has expanded health care coverage and lowered health care costs for millions of Americans. In Maine, the ACA has lowered premiums, protected Maine people with preexisting conditions, and expanded health coverage to nearly 90,000 people. However, until Governor Janet Mills was sworn into office in January 2019, Maine people were unable to feel the full effects of the landmark law. That’s because for eight years, Mills’ predecessor, Paul LePage, did everything he could to obstruct the ACA and make life-saving care more expensive and harder to access for Maine people as a result.
During LePage’s time in office, he compared the bill to the Holocaust, and vigorously fought against every part of the ACA which would have made health care more accessible or affordable in Maine. That included:
- Threatening to go to jail rather than allowing voter-approved Medicaid expansion, which since being implemented by Mills has provided health care to nearly 90,000 Maine people
- Joining a lawsuit to overturn the ACA and kick even more Maine people off their health insurance
- Fighting efforts to codify key ACA protections into Maine law, including requirements that insurance companies cover preventative care and pregnancy screenings
Today, with LePage back on the campaign trail threatening to undo the progress the state made on health care since he left, key Maine Democrats are calling him out on his failures and celebrating the anniversary of this landmark law. Watch video here or read quotes below:
“The Affordable Care Act was signed into law twelve years ago today. Yet here in Maine, much of the bill has only been in effect for three years, after Paul LePage spent his time in office fighting tooth and nail to stop it from helping Maine people get better health care,” said Drew Gattine, Chair of the Maine Democratic Party. “Since Janet Mills has taken office, we’ve fully implemented the ACA, and almost 90,000 Maine people have access to life-saving care as a result.”
“As a practicing family physician, I saw how Paul LePage’s eight years of obstructing the Affordable Care Act put strain on Maine’s families,” said Senator Ned Claxton (D-Androscoggin), a retired family physician. “Since Governor Mills took office, it’s been gratifying to see people who hadn’t been able to afford health care be able to get the preventative and ongoing care that they needed all along.”
“The best days of my public service were meeting with President Obama as the provisions in the Affordable Care Act were being finalized.” said Rep. Richard Evans (D-Dover-Foxcroft), a practicing general surgeon. “The expansion of health care in Maine achieved by the Affordable Care Act has been lifesaving, over the last two years, for people in the state of Maine, as well as across the nation.”
“These are the stakes for the midterm elections this year. If Paul LePage and his Republican colleagues take back power in Augusta, we will lose all the progress we’ve made to implement the ACA and make sure Maine people have access to life-saving care,” said Speaker Ryan Fecteau (D-Biddeford). “That’s why we have to re-elect Janet Mills and Democrats up and down the ticket this November.”
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