Staff Report

Senate Republican Leader Trey Stewart interviews Senator Marianne Moore, Senate Republican Lead on the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee 

Stewart: Senator Moore, you’ve been on the Health and Human Services Committee for eight years. They cover a lot in that committee and certainly manage a lot of money. Chief among those programs is Medicaid, otherwise known as MaineCare. Tell us a little bit about what’s happening, what the latest is as it relates to that program in the upcoming budget.

Moore: It’s very frustrating to be honest with you. Instead of trying to find ways to reduce the number of people on MaineCare and cut back on the costs, they just keep increasing it and increasing it. If you have people that are constantly being placed on MaineCare, maybe there’s something we need to do to get them off of MaineCare and reduce our [enrollment] numbers. Our [enrollment] numbers are crazy. We’re continuing to see the increases and the spending. It’s just out of control.

Stewart: To that point, there are over 400,000 people in the state on Medicaid—almost a third of our entire population. Yet, we’re seeing costs completely take off, no enrollment reduction that was supposed to happen; and now, because of federal oversight, a lot of fraud is being exposed throughout that system. Not only are we putting too many people on the program on the front end, then on the back end, we’re not even managing the system well for making sure that when we do cut a check to a provider that they even exist. Can you talk to me a little about what’s happening as it relates to accountability in that program?

Moore: When I look at the fraud and abuse department, there really are not enough people that are able to look at it. I believe they have 24 people and we have thousands of vendors. We should be looking at who’s getting the most reimbursements and work our way down from there. They’re not doing the investigations like they should be — seeing who’s actually billing the program. 

Yet, they continue to spend, they continue to budget; and they’re not even thinking about including funds in the budget should the federal government try to recoup some of the funding that’s already being looked at.

Stewart: We know that the feds are going to be taking some of that money back. So, whatever the Democrats in the Legislature are teeing up to spend now is doing so without that clawback even being factored in. They’re spending money that they don’t have right now to expand that program even more.

Moore: Those are the questions we keep asking. Yesterday, we were talking about the budget. They want to add 35 people to get the error rate down for SNAP recipients; and I thought, wait a second, why do you need additional people? We should already be doing that.

It’s just that they’re not looking at the possibilities of fraud. It’s just spend, spend, spend instead of trying to look at how we can cut back. We were talking about the work requirement — the Department was saying they’ll have to add 44 people to check and make sure individuals are doing the work they need to be doing or have the exemption they’re allowed.

These are things I think should have already been done. We’ve always promoted requirements for able-bodied adults on MaineCare. We’re not talking about people with disabilities or a mom with children. Able-bodied adults should always have been required to work to receive these benefits. This is not asking a lot, but you would think we asked the Department to recreate the world or something.

Stewart: The fact that they can’t repurpose some of these positions that are in the Department — a lot of which are vacant — we could repurpose those funds to make sure that able-bodied young adults without dependents, with no disabilities who should be doing something with their lives are, in fact, doing that if they’re receiving public assistance. Thankfully, the federal government seems to be moving forward with this requirement. 

Senator Moore, thank you for all your hard work on the committee. We’re lucky to have you there and I appreciate you joining us to talk about the Republican vision for what the future of the state could look like—one where we don’t have our public assistance funds going to foreign countries to fund Somali warlords but going to our state’s most needy. A system that provides a hand up to folks but also comes with the responsibility that they do something with their lives, whether that’s working or going to school or volunteering in their community.

Moore: Absolutely and that’s why it’s so important that we Republicans continue to ask the important questions. We do get a lot of hemming and hawing going. Sometimes there are long days, but it has been a pleasure to be able to really ask these questions and make sure we’re good stewards of taxpayer funds.

Senator Harold “Trey” Stewart III represents District 2, which includes communities in Aroostook and Penobscot counties. He is the Senate Republican Leader and a member of the Legislative Council.

Senator Marianne Moore represents District 6, which includes communities in Washington and Hancock counties. She is the Senate Republican Lead for the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee.

Text edited for clarity and brevity.

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