Within days of Donald Trump’s inauguration, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), led by Mary Mayhew, announced that it would seek the Trump Administration’s help dismantling Maine’s Medicaid system. This week, DHHS is making good on that promise and holding hearings on its request that the federal government “waive” certain Medicaid rules – rules that no administration in the past 50 years has waived – in order to further dismantle health care for Mainers.

Commissioner Mayhew has staked her career on reducing the number of Mainers who can access MaineCare.  Under her stewardship, the state has reduced MaineCare’s enrollment by 37 percent, taking health insurance away from approximately 80,000 poor Mainers. Just this year, her department proposed to make poor 19- and 20-year-olds, as well as parents earning more than 40 percent of the federal poverty level (a parent in a family of three earning more than $8,064 per year) ineligible for MaineCare.

Gov. LePage and Commissioner Mayhew want us to think that their proposals are about saving money and prioritizing the neediest among us, as has been their line on all cuts and rollbacks to the social safety over the past six years.  However, that rhetoric is empty when we look at the statistics: since Mayhew started at DHHS, Maine’s national health rank has fallen from 10^th to 22^nd, the number of uninsured children is rising, and Maine’s infant mortality rate has spiked well above the national average (while in most states it is dropping).  Whatever we’re doing with the money that is supposedly saved by kicking people off of health care, the data shows that it is not going to our states’ most vulnerable and needy.

And Mayhew and LePage are so hell-bent on this mission, they are asking for a waiver that might not even be legal. The waiver DHHS is requesting, called a section 1115 waiver, is supposed to be for experimental pilots that further the Medicaid Act’s goals of providing health insurance to low-income families.  But putting time-limits on health care, lowering asset level caps on Medicaid recipients, and creating more rules that are likely to kick people off of their health insurance in no way support the Medicaid Act’s stated objectives.  Instead, this is just another attempt to stigmatize poor people and whittle away at health insurance for our neediest citizens.

Here’s some good news for your Thursday:

The Maine Legislature has taken a stand for voting rights, rejecting two bills that would have made it harder for qualified Mainers to vote.

And last month the Legislature voted down LD 121, which would have required Mainers to show photo ID at the polls to vote. Voter ID laws have been shown to disproportionately affect poor people, elderly people, people in rural communities and people of color. LD 155, a bill that would have negatively impacted Maine students’ ability to exercise their voting rights, was rejected earlier this month a bipartisan majority in the House and Senate. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Fredette (R-Newport), would have required increased scrutiny of voters who list a college dorm as a residence – even though the U.S. Supreme Court found in Symm v. United States (1979) that dormitory students cannot be treated differently than other residents for voting purposes.

We, the people of Maine, should celebrate this as a victory for all of us. The ways we showed up to defend voting rights effectively sent a message to our representatives. Specifically, I know the hearing will stand out in my memory for a long time.

That day, over 100 of us turned out for the public hearing the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee to express that bills restricting voting rights are not in line with our values. Maine has always been a leader in voter turnout. Loud and clear, we told them our elected officials should work to encourage more people to vote - not the other way around.

It was especially inspirational for me to see Bates students who came to testify at the hearing take the opportunity to talk with the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Kenneth Fredette (R-Newport), about how the bill would affect them directly. If you’ll recall, the Bates campus has been a target of misinformation and voter suppression efforts. The students were able to speak about their experience and advocate for themselves. These are the voices Legislators need to hear - those that are directly impacted by their bills. It was a privilege to be in such courageous company.

Another really powerful moment at the hearing was when a woman from rural Maine stood her ground after being gaveled over by the committee chair AND having her mic shut off when she asserted the inherent, institutional racism behind voter ID laws. After some back-and-forth, her mic was turned back on and she was permitted to make her point on the record.

To me, this woman and the students from Bates are actual heroes. Regular, everyday folk who saw the injustice in these bills and were willing to speak truth to power. And to all of you who provided written testimony and made calls to your legislators: thank you! Friends, never underestimate the power of your voice or our collective ability to effect change. This victory belongs to all of us!

We know that there is no evidence of voter fraud in Maine. We know that the people of Maine value our voting rights and want the process to be accessible to as many eligible voters as possible. The Legislature’s votes truly reflected the will of the people. 

A special thanks to Rep. Craig Hickman (D-Winthrop) for his perspective and leadership on this issue. And a big thank you to our organizational partners who work alongside us to protect voting rights, including Equality Maine, League of Women Voters of Maine, Maine People’s Alliance, Maine Voices Network, Maine Women’s Lobby and NAACP-Maine.

Way to go, y’all.