Westbrook, MAINE – In case you missed it, PBS NewsHour last night shined a light on how Republican gubernatorial candidate Mary Mayhew’s work with Governor Paul LePage to severely rollback access to food assistance has driven up food insecurity in Maine. The report also highlights Maine’s current attempt to apply similar restrictions to Medicaid.
“Maine is not a model, it’s a cautionary tale,” said Chris Hastedt, Public Policy Director at Maine Equal Justice Partners said in the report. “Things are not going in a good direction. And for the for those who argue that these so-called reforms are effective and we’re helping to raise families out of poverty and improve their ability to support their families. It’s just not happened.”
“Mainecare is important for people to be able to get to the place where they can work, provide for their families,” said Dr. Renee Fay-LeBlanc, the Chief Medical Officer at Greater Portland Health. “I had a patient who did not have MaineCare. He was having a lot of symptoms that hadn’t been explained yet or diagnosed and yet he refused to go to the hospital because he didn’t want to rack up more medical debt. And that patient died last year. And I firmly believe that if he had had access to Mainecare and could have gotten his medications and real thorough workup for the symptoms that he was experiencing, he wouldn’t have died.”
To watch the complete report from NewsHour, click HERE.
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