Human Services

Policy:
1. General Assistance Reform
2. MaineCare Sustainability and the Fallacy of a Backdoor to Single-Payer Healthcare Insurance

3. MaineCare Reimbursement

4. Hospital and Provider Reimbursement
5. Child Protective Services to Adopt “Walk a Mile in their Shoes” Report

Rationale:
Maine’s General Assistance program unfairly targets rural Maine as a source of funds, with little benefit to the towns in return. The General Assistance program will be adjusted to make the system work for all municipalities, not simply larger cities. The welfare state is alive and well in Maine and must be addressed immediately through education and labor training initiatives.

MaineCare, Maine’s Medicaid system for families in need will not be a political football. There is a two-sided problem to MaineCare that needs to be addressed. First, we in the United States developed a system where Medicaid policyholders subject their service providers to a lower reimbursement rate. This is a form of structural discrimination, as MaineCare coverage automatically makes the holder a second-class citizen in healthcare settings. Some providers don’t accept Medicaid patients. The other part of the two-sided problem is the massive expansion of MaineCare since 2019. People on the left-side of this issue refuse to reform MaineCare. Work requirements for able-bodied people has been a part of welfare regulation at the state and national levels for decades. Some oppose work requirements, but in reality, work opportunities give hope and purpose to Maine citizens and families.

Maine is the same size as New Hampshire, yet we have more than double the number of MaineCare enrollees. MaineCare has been used by politicians as a backdoor path to single-payer healthcare, instead of adequately covering those in need. This has caused the implosion of hospitals, nursing homes, birthing centers, group homes, mental health facilities, and many other provider entities. Providers and Maine citizens in general know full-well that the low rate of reimbursement combined with the explosion in enrollees in MaineCare utilization to approximately 400,000 Mainers is the cause of the system breakdown. MaineCare is for people in need. Working with Congress, Maine will market other subsidized insurance mechanisms to humanly transition the approximately 100,000 single Mainers without children who are currently enrolled in MaineCare.

Maine’s Child Protective Services will be under strict orders to seek safer placements for children in state custody. Many children have died while in the custody of the State of Maine. As recently as June of 2025, a child died in Lewiston following several direct warnings to the department from citizens who had knowledge of the dangers involved with this placement. As in the past, nothing was done to protect that child.

The privately-issued “Walk a Mile in Their Shoes” report, authored by former Secretary of State and Senator Bill Diamond is an excellent starting point for positive policy reform. We will seek more assistance from experts from outside the department, and set challenging progress benchmarks for our employees to follow.