Advocates speak at a press conference on LD 199 earlier this year | Beacon
Originally published in the Maine Beacon on July 7, 2023
A handful of Maine Senate Democrats joined with Republicans on Thursday to officially kill a measure that would have restored MaineCare coverage to many low-income people who were ineligible due to their immigration status. The vote means that those Mainers will continue to be excluded from the state’s Medicaid program simply because of where they’re from.
The bill in question, LD 199, was sponsored by House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Portland). The measure had been passed by the House but rejected by the upper chamber in an initial vote last month, severely dimming its prospects. That first vote in the Senate did not feature a roll call, meaning members were not forced to publicly express support or opposition to the bill.
Subsequently, the House’s Democratic majority amended the bill, narrowing it to restoring health coverage under MaineCare to noncitizens with low-incomes who are parents or caretaker relatives of kids under 18.
After that change, the Senate — which has a 22-13 Democratic majority — took its second vote on the bill, this time featuring a roll call.
Ultimately, the outcome did not change. Six Democrats joined with all Republicans present to shoot down the bill by a 17-14 vote. The Democrats who opposed the bill were Senate President Troy Jackson of Aroostook County, Senate Majority Leader Eloise Vitelli of Sagadahoc County, Sen. Henry Ingwersen of York County, Sen. Chip Curry of Waldo County, Sen. David LaFountain of Kennebec County and Sen. Tim Nangle of Cumberland County.
The bill was backed by the rest of the Democrats present in the chamber.
As Beacon previously reported, advocates with the All Means All coalition — a collection of groups supporting LD 199 — expressed frustration after the Senate took its initial vote against the bill last month, arguing that the bill is a matter of fundamental fairness and justice.
“The failure to pass LD 199 will have significant real-life consequences,” the coalition said. “We know moms who are struggling to stay healthy to care for their kids, Mainers who work as home health aides but are unable to afford medication to manage their diabetes, and a father who tragically lost his life because they were too afraid to seek costly care and bankrupt their young families’ futures.”
After the second vote in the Senate, the coalition said it was “extremely disappointed” in the senators who continued to oppose the bill.
Still, the coalition thanked its legislative backers — such as Talbot Ross — for their support and pledged to continue fighting for health coverage for all immigrants.
“LD 199 came farther than any bill like it before,” the groups said. “The arc of justice is long, but in Maine it is bending toward health equity. Those without access to life-saving health care can’t afford the luxury of time, so we’ll continue to bring their urgent stories to legislators and we won’t stop until health care for all truly means all.”
If passed in its original form, LD 199 would have finally completely reversed action taken in 2011 by then-Gov. Paul LePage that rolled back coverage under MaineCare for many immigrants. Up until that year, noncitizens who made below a certain amount were eligible to enroll in MaineCare.
Democrats, who have maintained a governing trifecta in Augusta since 2019, have done some work to reverse LePage’s discriminatory policy. In 2021, Gov. Janet Mills and the legislature restored MaineCare coverage to noncitizens under 21 years old and those who are pregnant. LD 199, as initially drafted, would have taken the next step by restoring MaineCare coverage to all income-eligible immigrants.
As the bill was being considered by the legislature, immigrants in Maine repeatedly told stories about the effects of often not being eligible for coverage, saying the exclusion has led to fear and adverse health impacts.
“When you see bills keep coming in, you are scared, you don’t know what will happen,” said Leopold Ndayisabye, who lives in Scarborough and came to Maine in 2011 from Rwanda. “The consequence is that you are in constant worry about your life. And if you get sick, [you don’t] want to go all the time to the hospital.”
Throughout the campaign, advocates also repeatedly emphasized that excluding some immigrants from public health care programs risks making the state less healthy as a whole, as the health of one person or a group of people can have a significant impact on the health of others. They also explained that having an exclusionary system is more expensive because if people don’t have access to health insurance, they will often delay treatment until the last possible minute, exacerbating conditions and making it more likely they will need a significant amount of care.
Despite such explanations, Republicans have long opposed allowing low-income people regardless of their immigration status to be eligible for MaineCare.
It’s not clear, however, why some Senate Democrats — including the caucus’ top two leaders — opposed a measure that had a favorable vote in the Health and Human Services Committee and was supported by most of their political allies in both the House and the Senate.
Spokespeople for Jackson and Vitelli did not respond to a request for comment about why the two leaders opposed the bill. Ingwersen, Curry, LaFountain, and Nangle also didn’t respond to a question about their stance on the measure.
However, after a similar bill stalled last year, some supporters of the measure said they believed Democrats in the legislature were worried about perceived political consequences of supporting the measure in advance of the November 2022 elections.
Evan Popp studied journalism at Ithaca College and interned at the Progressive magazine, ThinkProgress and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. He then worked for the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper before joining Beacon. Evan can be reached at evan@mainebeacon.com.
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