Maine Legislature Approves Expansions of Medicaid and CHIP Coverage While New Hampshire Lawmakers Agree on High Risk Pool

Maine lawmakers last night hammered out a "scaled back" version of a bill (LD 1303) that would expand eligibility for the state's Medicaid program, the Portland Press Herald reports. The bill, sponsored by state House Speaker Michael Saxl (D), would extend Medicaid coverage to childless adults earning 100% of the federal poverty level, or annual incomes of $8,592 for individuals and $11,610 for couples. "If there is enough revenue" after the first year, eligibility would expand to cover about 5,000 additional people with annual incomes of up to $10,738 for singles and $14,513 for couples, the levels in the original version of the bill (Kesich, Portland Press Herald, 6/22). The bill had originally called for an expansion of Cub Care, the state's CHIP program, that would have included children from families earning up to 250% of the federal poverty level, or an annual income of $44,125 for a family of four (Adams, AP/Foster's Daily Democrat, 6/20). It also would have required the state to cover cancer medications for people enrolled in the Maine Prescription Drugs for the Elderly Program (Kesich, Portland Press Herald, 6/21). But lawmakers, fearing a veto from Gov. Angus King (I), decided to cut the Cub Care and prescription drug expansions. King had said that he "did not believe the state could afford the long term expense" of the bill. Funding for the bill's provisions would come from an increase in the cigarette tax (Portland Press Herald, 6/22). Republican lawmakers had opposed boosting the cigarette tax and doing away with the tax loophole, but Saxl cited opinion polls showing that "most people support increasing the tax on cigarettes to pay for more health coverage" (Portland Press Herald, 6/21).

New Hampshire Reaches Agreement on Risk Pool Bill
New Hampshire legislators reached a "tentative agreement" on a bill that would create a high risk insurance pool for people with certain "serious" health conditions. The bill would allow insurance companies to increase premiums for individuals in the pool according to their conditions and other risk factors such as age and tobacco use. The firms, however, could not raise premiums more than 150% over standard rates (Ayotte, AP/Foster's Daily Democrat, 6/21).