Letter: Expand Medicaid in Maine

To the Editor;

I learned something I didn’t know from the Oct. 12 Bangor Daily News article about a push for a referendum on Medicaid expansion in Maine. It stated that the cost of Medicaid expansion for 70,000 Mainers would be borne by the federal government 100 percent for the first three years and 90 percent thereafter. I mistakenly believed that the state would be responsible for 100 percent of the cost beginning in year four. But it would pick up only 10 percent of the cost.

We’re often told that state government should be run like a business. What business would not invest in new equipment, products and additional employees if another entity backstopped the business 100 percent for the first three years and 90 percent thereafter? So, why can’t Maine expand Medicaid to 70,000 eligible Mainers who are our friends, neighbors and family?

Enhancing health care options for Mainers is good policy, good economics and the right thing to do.

John Contreni

Greenville