Maine Supreme Court orders Medicaid expansion to go forward

Maine’s high court last week ruled that Republican Gov. Paul LePage’s administration must move forward to implement the state’s voter-mandated Medicaid expansion even if it continues to fight the plan in court.

In a largely procedural 6-1 decision, the Supreme Judicial Court determined LePage’s appeal of a lower court ruling requiring them to submit a Medicaid expansion plan to the CMS was premature, since most of the case’s issues remain on the table.

Under the voter-passed initiative, Maine was supposed to start enrolling expansion beneficiaries by July 2. The initiative gave LePage until April 3 to submit a state plan amendment to the CMS. LePage balked at the measure and claimed he couldn’t act on it until the state Legislature funded Medicaid expansion.

But that argument didn’t hold up in court. Kennebec County Superior Judge Michaela Murphy in June ordered the state Department of Health and Human Services to submit a state plan amendment to the CMS by June 11 to implement the expansion. Now, Murphy will have to handle the rest of the case “in as timely a manner as possible,” according to the high court ruling, and future decisions in the case could come up for high court review.

In his dissent, Justice Donald Alexander criticized the lower court for “bypass(ing) those nettlesome questions” regarding whether the initiative comported with the state Constitution and ordering the expansion plan to go forward.

LePage’s communications director, Peter Steele, said the governor’s team is considering its options moving forward.

LePage previously had vetoed five bipartisan bills to extend Medicaid. This is his final year in office.