Medicaid refusal could be a nail in his political coffin.
Medicaid expansion is shaping up to be a key issue for Democrats hoping to regain the chief executive seat in states across the country. Those seats aren't the only thing at stake—expansion in the handful of states up for grab could mean 1.7 million people gaining coverage. These Democrats
know that's a compelling argument for their states.
That's true in Florida, where Charlie Crist, the former Republican governor who is now running as a Democrat has highlighted Gov. Rick Scott's flip-flopping on the issue and vowed expansion. Scott, after first editorializing against the expansion now says he'd go ahead with it, at least for the first few years. But Scott is taking a bizarrely passive approach: "I'm not going to stand in the way of the federal government doing something," he said last month in a Miami Herald interview. Note to Scott, it doesn't work that way. Governors actually have to make it happen. And Democratic candidates in Maine, Kansas, Wisconsin and Georgia are, like Crist, vowing to make it happen. Maine is one of the key states for Democrats.
Medicaid also has emerged as a centerpiece of this fall’s battle between Maine’s Republican governor, Paul LePage, and his Democratic opponent, Rep. Mike Michaud.
Michaud, who voted to support ObamaCare in 2010, has pledged to expand Medicaid the first day he is sworn into office. LePage has already vetoed five different bills to expand Medicaid.
LePage now holds one of the lowest approval ratings of any governor in the country (41 percent), which a Michaud spokeswoman called proof that voters don’t back his approach to health care.
LePage is the only thing stopping expansion in Maine. Elect Michaud and it happens. The
same is true in Wisconsin, where the governor has the power to accept the funding without legislative approval. Democrat Mary Burke has made Medicaid expansion a centerpiece for her campaign against Gov. Scott Walker.
Booting Republican governors in these states on the issue of Medicaid could have a ripple effect, demonstrating how popular the issue is for Democrats. That could encourage Republican governors up for re-election in 2016 to take the expansion. That could help close the Medicaid gap for the remaining millions who are locked out of coverage.
Help us elect a slate of Democratic governors, including Mary Burke and Mike Michaud.