WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King today announced that Fish River Rural Health Center has received a loan of $1,350,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to support the construction of additional facilities at its Fort Kent location. Fish River Rural Health is a Federally Qualified Health Center and has facilities in Eagle Lake and Fort Kent. The loan was allocated through the USDA’s Community Facilities Direct Loans and Guaranteed Loans... Continue Reading »
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In response to the failure of the second iteration of the Senate health care bill and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s decision to vote this week on a repeal and delay bill, U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) released the following video statement on his Facebook page: “The events of the last couple of days around here with regard to health care have given us a real opportunity to do something together on a bipartisan basis – to improve the present... Continue Reading »
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) today announced his support for legislation that would provide emergency funding to the Veterans Choice Program. The program, which helps veterans across Maine and the nation receive health within their communities, is facing an unexpected funding shortfall and, according to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, is likely to run out of money in early August. The Veterans Access to Care Act of 2017, introduced by Senator Jon Tester... Continue Reading »
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) issued the following statement in response to the release today of the new Senate health care bill: “This bill is no more encouraging than the last, which is to say it’s still terrible. It still includes drastic cuts to Medicaid that will hurt Maine seniors, children, and people with disabilities. It still shifts costs to the states. It still has inadequate... Continue Reading »
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) has signed onto a letter led by Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) urging the agency to better prevent painkillers from flooding the market by setting lower opioid production quotas for 2018. Last year, the DEA heeded Senators King’s and Durbin’s call to address America’s opioid epidemic by reducing nearly all opioid quotas by 25 percent or more. This was the first reduction of its... Continue Reading »
BRUNSWICK, ME – U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) today announced that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has awarded a total of $3,907,601 in federal funding to two Maine Health Centers. Katahdin Valley Health Center in Patten will receive $2,736,329 and Pines Health Services in Caribou will receive $1,171,272. “People throughout our state rely on rural health providers for the essential health services that keep them happy and healthy,” Senator King... Continue Reading »
MACHIAS, ME – U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) today visited Eastport Health Care Clinic and Down East Community Hospital in Machias where he heard concerns from doctors, health care providers, and hospital leadership over the proposed legislation currently under consideration by the Senate to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA). At Eastport Health Care Clinic, Senator King sat down with the leadership of every Federally-Qualified Health Center throughout Washington County. The... Continue Reading »
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) released the following statement in response to the Congressional Budget Office’s score of the Senate health care bill: “This score is further proof that this bill will do more harm than good,” Senator King said. “This bill will drastically increase the cost of coverage for older, working-class Maine people; put health insurance out of reach... Continue Reading »
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a video posted on his Facebook page today, U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) reacted to the release of the Senate’s health care bill, calling it “a really cruel bill” that will have “devastating” economic effects on Maine. “All this week we’ve been hunting around here for the Republican health care bill. This morning we found it, and I’m kind of sorry we did because it’s pretty bad,” Senator King said in his... Continue Reading »
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In case you missed it, in a video posted to his Facebook page this morning, U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) criticized the secret, closed-door talks by a small handful of senators to write a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, saying that the Senate “can do better” for the American people. Senator King also criticized the reported substance of the bill as being terrible for Maine, hurting rural hospitals and rural communities; skyrocketing the price of... Continue Reading »
BRUNSWICK, ME – With the Trump Administration refusing to enforce central provisions of the Affordable Care Act, U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) today sent letters to three Maine health insurance companies asking if the substantial uncertainty these efforts are creating will end up raising the costs of Maine peoples’ health insurance. In his letters to Anthem Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Maine, Community Health Options, and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Senator King specifically... Continue Reading »
BRUNSWICK, ME – U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) today signed a letter led by Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) requesting that the Fiscal Year 2018 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations bill include $52.1 million for the critical State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP). President Trump’s budget proposal would eliminate the program. In a letter to HELP Committee Chairman Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and HELP Committee Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-Wash.),... Continue Reading »
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Angus King (I-Maine), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), along with several families of children from across America who have survived cancer, joined together today to speak out against the American Health Care Act’s failure to provide Americans with preexisting conditions with affordable, quality care. In his remarks, Senator King emphasized how having health insurance can mean the difference between life and death, as it did for him... Continue Reading »
BANGOR, ME – U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) today co-hosted a discussion with AARP Maine at the Bangor Public Library to highlight the harmful effects of the American Health Care Act (AHCA) and share the stories of older, rural Maine people who are worried that the bill will dramatically increase their health care costs and make health insurance unaffordable and unattainable. The discussion specifically focused on the impact of the age tax, a provision within the AHCA that would allow... Continue Reading »
PORTLAND, ME – U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) today sent President Donald Trump a letter urging him not to cut funding to the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). Senator King’s letter comes in the wake of reports that the President is considering a drastic 95 percent reduction in budget for ONDCP, the federal government’s lead office in coordinating the fight against the opioid epidemic in states like Maine. The cuts would come at a time when the drug crisis... Continue Reading »
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Angus King (I-Maine), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) have introduced the Medicaid Coverage for Addiction Recovery Expansion (Medicaid CARE) Act, bipartisan legislation that would expand access to substance abuse treatment for tens of thousands of Medicaid beneficiaries across the country. The Medicaid CARE Act would increase addiction treatment services to help combat the heroin... Continue Reading »
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Angus King (I-Maine), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) today reintroduced bipartisan legislation that would help newborns suffering from neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), a withdrawal condition often caused by use of opioids and other addictive substances in pregnant women. The Caring Recovery for Infants and Babies (CRIB) Act would allow states to recognize residential pediatric recovery facilities as... Continue Reading »
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A week after hearing from the mothers of Daniel Humphrey of Lewiston and Lidia Woofenden of Bowdoinham, two young adults with disabilities, U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) took to the Senate floor today to share their stories with the nation and speak out against the House-passed health care bill as a cruel piece of legislation that would hurt them and other people with disabilities throughout Maine. In his remarks, Senator King explained that the misleadingly named... Continue Reading »
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) today announced that he has cosponsored bipartisan legislation to help halt the flow of illicit fentanyl from Mexico, China, and other nations around the world into the United States. The INTERDICT Act, which was introduced earlier this year by Senators Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), would provide U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CPB) with resources and tools,... Continue Reading »
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Susan Collins, the Chairman of the Senate Aging Committee, and Angus King announced today that The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor has been awarded a grant totaling $2,668,127 over five years that will fund studies of the complex processes involved in both healthy aging and Alzheimer’s disease “Approximately 5.4 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease today, including 37,000 in Maine, and that number is soaring as our... Continue Reading »
