While the Trump resistance was sweeping state and local elections across the nation, Maine voters were resisting their idiot Republican governor, Paul LePage, finally overriding his multiple vetoes of Medicaid expansion with a ballot measure winning with an 18-point margin. Expansion could extend health care to around 80,000 uninsured Mainers.
LePage's response? He's going to find every way he can to stop it from happening, because that's just what he does.
Of course, as Goodnough points out, LePage's DHHS estimate of how much it will cost the state is much higher than that of the "nonpartisan state office that does budget research." So what happens now is a little up in the air. LePage can't veto a ballot measure like he has the multiple expansion bill the Maine legislature has passed.
What he can do is send the bill back to the legislature for approval. That has to happen within 45 days of the beginning of the session. The ballot measure itself requires that the state submit a plan to the Trump administration within 90 days. That leaves a lot of room for uncertainty.
At the same time, the legislature and Presidential administration has changed since these votes and the legislature never had the votes to override a veto. Taken together, the process of Maine expanding Medicaid could take a significant amount of time if the Governor and state legislature so decides.
Given the overwhelming margin of the win for Medicaid here, the legislature might be more inclined to make this happen. But it's not going to happen without a fight from both LePage and Trump.