WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) joined colleagues to introduce legislation that would allow states that expanded Medicaid after 2014 or expand in the years ahead to receive the same full federal matching funds that the state would have received if it had expanded earlier under the terms of the Affordable Care Act. The legislation would directly benefit Maine, which is in the process of expanding Medicaid following a successful 2017 referendum; the state legislature had previously passed six bills to expand Medicaid only to see each one vetoed by then-Governor Paul LePage. The States Achieve Medicaid Expansion (SAME) Act of 2019 is also supported by U.S. Senators Mark Warner (D-Va.), Doug Jones (D-Ala.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.).

“The people of Maine have made their wishes perfectly clear: they want Medicaid expansion,” said Senator King. “That’s why the voters of Maine took the issue into their own hands and decisively passed a referendum to expand Medicaid access to tens of thousands of Maine people. Our state government is now in the process of fulfilling this responsibility, but due to delayed implementation, Maine stands to lose a significant portion of the federal funds that should go towards our most vulnerable citizens. The people of Maine don’t deserve to be punished for this delay – so while this expansion proceeds at the state level, I will continue fighting at the federal level to make sure our state receives the same benefits as those who expanded Medicaid earlier.”

The Affordable Care Act provides financial support to states that have expanded their existing Medicaid programs to provide healthcare coverage to all individuals up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. The federal government covers the full cost of expansion for three years, phasing down to a 90 percent match rate for the sixth year of the expansion and in subsequent years. Currently, states choosing to expand coverage after 2014 do not receive the same federal matching rates as those that expanded immediately. This is due to the Supreme Court’s holding in National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) v. Sebelius, which made expansion optional for states, despite intentions to make Medicaid expansion national in 2014.

The SAME Act would ensure that any states that expand Medicaid receive an equal level of federal funding for the expansion, regardless of when they chose to expand. Under the bill, a state would receive three years of full federal funding, phasing down to a 95 percent Federal Medical Assistance Percentages (FMAP) in Year 4; a 94 percent federal contribution in Year 5; 93 percent in Year 6; and, 90 percent for each year thereafter.