LePage says he'll go to jail before expanding Medicaid

Press Herald - Maine’s governor says if a court tells him he must expand Medicaid without budgeted state funding, he’d go to jail before putting Maine in “red ink.”

Gov. Paul LePage made the remark Tuesday during a call-in on WVOM-FM.

Nearly three out of five voters last fall voted to expand Medicaid to 80,000 Mainers by July 2.

The governor is fighting a court order requiring him to submit paperwork for Maine to receive federal funding. He successfully vetoed a bill to fund Maine’s expansion costs with surplus and tobacco settlement funds.

The bill provided state funding that would be supplemented by more than $500 million in federal funds to expand Medicaid to between 70,000 and 80,000 more Mainers. Supporters say costs to the state would be less than $50 million once the expansion is fully implemented, but opponents contend the cost could be twice that.