Appeals Court Decision Requires Maine to Keep 19- and 20-year-olds on Medicaid

Press Release

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree welcomed a decision by a Federal Appeals Court that the Obama Administration was right to deny a request by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to drop Medicaid coverage for 19- and 20-year olds.

In Mayhew v Burwell, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled that the State of Maine is required under the Affordable Care Act's "maintenance of effort" provisions to continue providing Medicaid coverage for these young adults until 2019. Maine officials asked for a waiver to drop the coverage in 2012 and after the Obama Administration denied the waiver, DHHS sought to have that decision overturned.

"Maine has covered these young adults for over 20 years, and dropping the coverage now clearly violates the provisions of the AffordableCare Act," Pingree said. "This is good news for thousands of low-income 19- and 20-year olds who faced the loss of health care coverage."

Maine officials had argued that a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down a provision of the ACA pushing states to expand Medicaid meant that the federal government could not force Maine to maintain coverage for youngadults. The Appeals Court rejected that argument.

Pingree wrote to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebellius in 2012 urging the rejection of the waiver, saying "elimination of Medicaid coverage would not only adversely affect the health and wellbeing of Maine residents and upset Maine's local economies, it would also be in direct violation of the maintenance of effort requirement, even in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling."

Maine Attorney General Janet Mills weighed in on the side of the federal government, saying the decision to reject the waiver was correct and constitutional.

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