Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hi, my name is Mary Mayhew and I am the Commissioner for the Maine Department of Health and Human
Services.
I wan to speak with you briefly today about a significant issue pending before the Maine
Legislature. This issue is whether or not the state should commit hundreds of millions
of dollars to expanding the state's Medicaid program, known as MaineCare, to cover 100,000
new individuals at a time when, we today, are not fulfilling our core mission in meeting
the needs of our most vulnerable citizens.
We cannot choose to expand a program committing limited resources and abandoning those who
most need and most depend on our state government.
I want to be clear about who we are talking about: aging parents who are caring about
an adult child with Down Syndrome. They are increasingly challenged in their ability to
appropriately care for their child and yet we have not committed resources in our state
budget to support them. It's the Department of Health and Human Services that today is
receiving the panicked calls from parents with a child with autism who is about to graduate
from high school and is being placed on a waitlist - a waitlist that today has thousands
of individuals on it - our elderly, people with disabilities who are waiting for critical
services and supports that have not been funded by our state Medicaid program.
We do not live in a world of unlimited resources.
We simply cannot commit more than eight-hundred million dollars over the next ten years to
expand this program and expect to ever be able to fund and support the needs and services
for our most vulnerable.
We all today are struggling with aging parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles who need additional
support and services. The Medicaid program needs to be funded to meet those needs, those
services.
These are very difficult decisions. But Governor LePage believes we must first ensure that
our core mission is being met and that we are effectively meeting the needs of our most
vulnerable before we commit hundreds of millions of dollars to expand this program.
I truly appreciate your consideration of these issues.
Thank you