Fried quoted in Modern Healthcare article on vote to expand Medicaid
Amy Fried, a political science professor at the University of Maine, spoke with Modern Healthcare for the article, “Maine residents hope ballot box will do what legislators couldn’t: Expand Medicaid to more low-income adults.” A coalition of Democratic and moderate Republican state lawmakers passed bills five times that would have had Maine apply for federal Medicaid expansion money to cover low-income, able-bodied adults without children at home, but Gov. Paul LePage vetoed them each time, according to the article. Fried said she’s hesitant to handicap the referendum’s chances, since there has been no polling. “You would not expect to see much turnout in such an off, off year,” she said. But, Fried noted, Maine does have centrist Republicans who support expansion, and national polls show strong support for Medicaid expansion. That, and the fact that signatures were collected quickly, are “all signs there is weight of public opinion toward it,” she said.