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January 9, 2013

Feds allow portion of LePage Medicaid cuts

The federal government will allow $4 million in cuts to Maine's Medicaid program, representing one-fifth of the $20 million in cuts to the health care program requested by Gov. Paul LePage to help close the program's budget gap.

Overall, the state's Medicaid program faces a $100 million shortfall that legislators are expected to address in a supplemental budget package expected Friday, according to the Bangor Daily News.

The paper reported that the ruling issued Monday by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will cut around 12,600 low-income parents and caretakers from the state's Medicaid rolls.

The ruling settles a dispute over the $20 million in Medicaid cuts approved by the Maine Legislature that were scheduled to take effect last October. That move came into conflict with a portion of the Affordable Care Act that mostly bars states from reducing Medicaid coverage in advance of a required expansion of the program in 2014.

The $20 million in cuts would have taken an estimated 36,000 low-income people off of the state's Medicaid rolls. The paper reports that an estimated 21,000 people that stood to lose coverage will now remain in the program.

LePage's request for Medicaid cuts is just one of the battles cited in news outlet Politico's listing of Maine as one of the five states to watch in the implementation of the ACA.

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