Of All the Left’s Election Night Victories, Maine’s Medicaid Expansion Is the Most Important

The Affordable Care Act is far from being perfect legislation, and it has plenty of holes in it that have made insurance worse in this country (like rising deductibles that make some plans practically unusable). However, one of its core benefits is the Medicaid expansion that practically gives states free money to give health care to their poor, and about 11 million uninsured have received health care through this policy. However, plenty of Republican governors have rejected this free money—because they’d rather their voters view them as heartless murderers than someone who is willing to work with a black guy—which has caused the program to go haywire in some states, while sailing smoothly through others.

Which brings us to Maine. Their governor, Paul LePage, was Trump before Trump, as he famously said that (black) drug dealers come to Maine to “impregnate white women.” LePage vetoed five separate bills passed by the state legislature to expand Maine’s Medicaid program (federal funds were earmarked for Maine’s Medicaid expansion three years ago, and the lack of implementation has cost Maine an estimated $1.2 billion), and last night, voters joined in the fight, and passed the Medicaid expansion. This is incredibly important because if the legislature ratifies it, LePage cannot override this vote with a veto (although that hasn’t stopped him from trying to usurp democracy yet again).