Five times, Maine Gov. Paul LePage has vetoed Medicaid expansion. In Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker didn't have to veto the expansion since he's got a Republican legislature, so he not only refused to champion taking the expansion, he also
refused $37 million in federal grants just to set up a health insurance exchange in his state. So in the who hates Obamacare more game, Walker apparently wins.
Who loses? About 157,000 people, directly. That's 87,000 in Wisconsin and 70,000 in Maine. But it's not just the 150,000 poor people in those states who are losing. It's everyone in those states that pay taxes. They are seeing their federal taxes go to help people in other states get coverage, and are missing out on hundreds of millions of federal dollars being injected into their own states.
If Maine and Wisconsin elect Democrats—Mike Michaud and Mary Burke, respectively—that could change. In Maine, the legislature has already demonstrated—five times—that they want to take the expansion, they want to provide coverage to 70,000 Mainers. Michaud has made Medicaid expansion a cornerstone of his campaign.
Wisconsin is one of the states that grants the governor power to accept Medicaid money unilaterally, by executive order. While Burke hasn't said explicitly that she'd make that executive order to expand Medicaid, she has said she’ll "use every tool at her disposal to do so."
You can literally help save lives in Maine and Wisconsin. Your $3 can help elect Mike Michaud and Mary Burke.
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The stakes in this election are as high as they are in any presidential year for the 157,000 people in Maine and Wisconsin who are forced to be uninsured solely because of the political whims of their governors. Yeah, that matters. A lot.
