By: Jane Perkins
Executive Summary
In comments to the U.S. Department of of Health and Human Services (HHS), NHeLP urges it to reject Maine’s Section 1115 waiver project because the state proposes changes to Medicaid that would undermine the purpose of law and harm low-income people who need Medicaid for health care. Maine’s Sec. 1115 waiver application, for instance includes imposing work requirements, premiums, emergency department copyaments, and elimination of retroactive eligibility. NHeLP strongly objects to “any efforts to use Section 1115 to skirt essential provisions that Congress has placed in the Medicaid Act protect Medicaid beneficiaries and ensure that the program operates in the best interests of the population groups it is designed to protect.”
