We don’t need Nancy Drew to solve this crime.
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My daughter was Nancy Drew for Halloween. She loves using her notebook and magnifying glass to solve mysteries that a 1st grader understands (Who left their soccer medal at our house? What shelf at Hannaford is missing its unit price label?).
However, even without her magnifying glass, she is smart enough to figure out that Maine stands to gain if we accept the federal dollars set aside to provide health coverage to the almost 70,000 Maine people, the majority of whom work, who fall into the coverage gap.
These folks work in low paying jobs (that we all benefit from) and make less than $16,150/year for a single person or $27,311 for a family of three. The Affordable Care Act was designed to cover these folks with Medicaid, or in Maine, MaineCare. Unfortunately, our state has opted not to extend coverage to those least able to afford it. They, unlike many of us, are not able to qualify for subsidized insurance—they are just too poor.
In this, we are sitting alone in the Northeast. All of our neighbors have accepted this federal money. They understand that since the Feds are paying 100% of the cost for this year (through 12/31/2016) and then an adjusted rate that never goes below 90% (by 2020) it is too good to pass up.
So, the only reason to deny 70,000 Mainers the health care is: politics. People will die, heart disease will go undiagnosed and Maine will lose money.
It seems completely illogical because it is.
Nancy Drew would not approve.
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