This is in response to letters from Cornelius Swanton (Oct. 1) and Glen Chateauvert (Oct. 4) concerning my response (Sept. 19) to a letter by Thomas Shields (Sept. 14). All three claim Republicans want clean elections to eliminate voter fraud — a popular claim by Republicans. Since 2000, there have been 31 documented cases of […]
Affordable Care Act
Chamber holding small business forum
LEWISTON — The Androscoggin County Chamber will host a forum for Maine small businesses from 7 to 9:15 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 25, at the Chamber, 415 Lisbon St., Lewiston. The topic will be “Maine Small Business and the Affordable Care Act.” This event is specifically designed for businesses with 50 or fewer employees and […]
Western Maine Community Action receives healthcare ‘navigator’ grant
AUGUSTA — Western Maine Community Action is one of two Maine health organizations getting $600,000 to help consumers sign up for insurance under the federal health care overhaul law. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said WMCA and the Fishing Partnership Health Plan will receive navigator grant funding. The grants are part of […]
ACA proponent: Ruling ‘nothing to panic about’
News Update: ACA to continue subsidies as courts contradict each other Despite a pair of dueling court rulings Tuesday — one that said people cannot use government tax breaks to buy health insurance through federally run Affordable Care Act marketplaces and one that said they can — proponents of the health care reform law said […]
More money, less money: the effects of not expanding MaineCare
The head of the Portland Community Health Center and her chief financial officer sat down last week to figure out which bills they could pay. They don’t have the money to pay all of them. More than half of their patients are uninsured, up from about 30 percent a few years ago. The health center […]
Mabel Wadsworth Center holds Saturday protest outside Bangor Hobby Lobby
BANGOR — Women and men stood on the sidewalk in front of Hobby Lobby Saturday morning holding signs that read: “My body is not your hobby,” “Control the boardroom, not the bedroom” and “Life, liberty and reproductive freedom,” amongst others. The group of about 50, organized by the Mabel Wadsworth Women’s Health Center, stood together […]
Outgoing MaineCare ride broker to get millions
PORTLAND — Records show that the company that won’t have its contracts to provide rides for Maine Medicaid patients renewed because of poor performance is scheduled to receive millions of dollars in extra money from the state in its last weeks on the job. Connecticut-based Coordinated Transportation Solutions, whose contracts end this summer, already received […]
Maine insurers that sell Affordable Care Act plans seek rate increases in 2015
The two insurers selling plans to Maine consumers under the Affordable Care Act want to raise rates in 2015, but well below the double-digit average hikes cropping up in some other states. The proposed rates offer a tentative first look at how much insurers seek to charge during the second year of Healthcare.gov, a cornerstone […]
Was LePage right on Medicaid expansion? Republicans, officials divided
AUGUSTA — Officials in the state of Arkansas are saying “not so fast” to claims being made by leaders in Maine’s Republican Party that an expansion of Arkansas’s Medicaid program has led that state to fiscal crisis and Maine was wise not to expand its low-income health care program. Amy Webb, communications director for the […]
Cover Oregon calls it quits
DURHAM, Ore. — After months of trying to get its problem-plagued online health exchange to work, Oregon on Friday officially gave up on the state portal and decided to switch to the federal website — the first state in the nation to do so. An early adapter and early enthusiast of the Affordable Care Act, […]