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The Person Trump Just Hired to Lead Medicaid Worked Hard to Block its Expansion in Maine
Only the best he said, only the best. Apparently working for Trump ain't what it used to be. Instead the swamp Trump campaigned to drain is multiplying in size with some of the worst people possible.
Former Maine health commissioner and Republican gubernatorial candidate Mary Mayhew has been tapped by the Trump administration to lead Medicaid, the health insurance program that covers more than 70 million low-income Americans.
Seema Verma, head of the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said in a prepared statement Monday that Mayhew has been named deputy administrator of the centers, and director of Medicaid. She also will oversee the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, which is offered to some families that have children and make too much money to qualify for Medicaid. The two programs cost more than $350 billion annually, or about 10 percent of the entire federal budget.
So about Ms. Mayhew.... why her? What are her qualifications for this incredible important position? How did she catch the eye of Trump's cronies?
Mary Mayhew.... worked with Maine Gov. Paul LePage to block expansion of the program in her home state. Mayhew was an “ardent” opponent of expanding Medicaid in Maine, despite the fact that Maine voters approved the expansion by a margin of 59 percent to 41 percent.
Mayhew also played a major role in eliminating nearly 70,000 people from the state’s Medicaid program and, like LePage, she was an ardent opponent of expanding Medicaid, which was made allowable at the state level under the Affordable Care Act.
Some in Maine view her tenure there as distasterous.
Mayhew left a legacy of aggressive and short-sighted cuts to social services that Maine likely will need to rebuild for years to come.
“What we’ve seen over the last eight years is a gutting of a lot of services that has resulted in a lack of attention and focus on core things like protecting children, seniors and adults with developmental disabilities,” said Rep. Drew Gattine, the former Democratic chair of the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee. “I think she is someone who was antagonistic toward Medicaid, so she fits into a long line of Trump appointees who are antagonistic about the programs they are asked to oversee."
Great. Someone who doesn't care about the health and well-being of tens of millions of low income Americans including CHILDREN is now in charge of the program designed and funded to help them survive and maybe someday thrive.
After Mayhew left the LePage administration last year, many Medicaid expansion advocates raked her over the coals for how she handled the crisis of helping Maine residents who lack health insurance.
“Ultimately, since she has been commissioner, life has gotten a lot harder for a lot of Maine families,” Robyn Merrill, executive director of Maine Equal Justice Partners, told CentralMaine.com last year. “Her legacy is a lot more hungry children in Maine.”
Let's keep in mind while Trump distracts us day after day, his Republican buddies spread their evil tentacles throughout the entire government aiming to destroy whatever they can as quickly as possible before we boot them out.
Mayhew was best known for her role in placing “work requirements for those accepting food benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program… as well as changing eligibility requirements for Medicaid.”
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