October 17, 2018

Trump names Medicaid slasher to head program

Maine Beacon -The Trump administration has appointed former head of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services Mary Mayhew to run the federal Medicaid program, sparking an outpouring of condemnation from Maine health care advocates who say the nomination signals the administration’s intent to reduce care for people across the nation.

“[The Trump administration] seems to choose people who have a philosophy that is completely opposed to the agency that they are supposed to be leading,” said James Myall, a policy analyst with the Maine Center for Economic Policy.

“This is someone who has overseen a massive cut to a program that’s supposed to help low-income people afford care,” he said, referring to Mayhew’s legacy of deep cuts to Medicaid in Maine, “and it’s all been couched in terms of moving people into self reliance and independence, but the data actually shows that it’s just left a lot of people struggling instead.”

In 2013 and 2014, Mayhew reduced access to MaineCare for low-income adults with children, lowering the eligibility threshold from 200 percent of the federal poverty line to just 100 percent, resulting in 28,500 parents being removed from the program.

No comments: