In Maine, multistate lawsuit spurs rally

AUGUSTA, Maine — The debate over Maine Attorney General Bill Schneider’s decision to join a lawsuit against President Obama’s health care reform package intensified on Wednesday even as members of Congress considered a bill to repeal the law.
About 75 people gathered outside of the State House Wednesday for a rally to decry Maine’s potential participation in the multistate lawsuit as well as Republican-led efforts in the Legislature to block implementation of the law in the state.
“Right now, Governor LePage, Attorney General Schneider, Congress and the Maine Legislature all have a choice,” said Jennie Pirkl, a heath care organizer for Maine People’s Alliance and one of the rally’s coordinators.
“They can stand up for the people of Maine by supporting the Affordable Care Act,” Pirkl said. “Or they can stand against us by working to dismantle it, returning us to the days when insurance companies can put their profits over the care of people.”
Nearly 10 months after President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, the political rhetoric over the law is still going strong.
In the U.S. House of Representatives, Republicans made good on their pledge to push through legislation repealing the law in a 245-189 vote despite staunch opposition in the Democratic-controlled Senate and a guaranteed presidential veto.
Both of Maine’s representatives in the House — Democratic Reps. Chellie Pingree and Mike Michaud — voted against the repeal measure.
Back at the State House, Republican Gov. Paul LePage and his nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services, Mary Mayhew, indicated they supported Schneider’s decision to join the lawsuit, which is subject to court approval.
“I hope that we can defeat it on a constitutional basis,” LePage said. “From what I’ve read, I don’t see how we are going to pay for it. Because right now [health care] is taking up a significant percentage of the budget.”
The contention of the lawsuit originally filed by Florida’s attorney general in March 2010 is that the law violates the constitution by requiring everyone except the very poor to purchase insurance by 2014 or face a financial penalty.
Additionally, the court filing — widely expected to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court — argues that the law will place an undue financial burden on already cash-strapped states to pay for the hoards of additional people who would qualify for Medicaid health coverage under the changes.
Mayhew, who has served as vice president of the Maine Hospital Association, said she believes Maine has made progress in recent years to reduce the ranks of the uninsured and to begin transforming the health care system with more of a focus on primary care.
“The efforts to pay for the national changes in the Affordable Care Act I fear are putting more costs on Maine to help subsidize what needs to be done in other states,” Mayhew said. “My concern is that we move backwards as a result of Affordable Care Act.”
The Florida lawsuit now focuses on those two areas. But supporters of the health care reform package argue the lawsuit likely would kill the entire reform package, including the widely supported provisions prohibiting insurers from dropping sick patients or denying coverage for pre-existing conditions.
That is because, financially, the reforms depend on bringing large numbers of healthy individuals into the pool in order to help keep costs for everyone down once insurers are prohibited from denying coverage.
“We have to get everybody to participate in the system, and that is why we felt so strongly about the individual mandate,” said Gordon Smith, executive director of the Maine Medical Association, which represents physicians and health care professionals.
Participants at Wednesday’s rally predicted that gutting the law would eliminate popularly supported provisions to allow young adults to remain on their parents’ insurance plans for longer and to close the “donut hole” that forces many seniors to pay large sums out-of-pocket for their prescription drugs.
“We believe the efforts of the attorney general and the administration to join in legal battles and lawsuits will be counterproductive and harmful for our members in Maine and across the country,” said Carol Kontos, president of the AARP of Maine.
Speakers at Wednesday’s rally accused Schneider and LePage of joining the lawsuit for political purposes.
But in an interview, Schneider reiterated that his opposition to the law is based solely on constitutional grounds.
“For me, it’s a legal issue,” Schneider said. “I believe, as do most people, that the health care system needs to be fixed, but I don’t want to see it fixed based on an unconstitutional foundation.”
But Smith, whose organization met with Schneider last week, said regardless of whether it is a legal or a political issue, he believes the lawsuit — and Maine’s participation in it — sends the wrong message and could eliminate some long-sought after changes.
“It took us 45 years to get this far, and it would send all the wrong signals, in my opinion,” Smith said.
Meanwhile, all of the changes contained in the 2010 health reform law and subsequent threats to undo those changes is causing more uncertainty in an already complex industry.
John Allumbaugh, president of the Maine Association of Health Underwriters, whose organization represents insurance agents and brokers, said it is difficult for his members to work with businesses on multiyear planning when so much is up in the air.
“The whole process is a moving target,” said Allumbaugh. “All around, it’s been very difficult.”
Allumbaugh said many of his association’s members — himself included — have serious concerns about aspects of the reform law. But members’ biggest concern, he said, is that nothing will get done to make health care more affordable and accessible because of the politicization of the issue.
“Regardless of what happens with this law, I hope we don’t stop the effort to fix the issue,” he said.