To expand Medicaid or not to expand Medicaid, that is the question. During my first year of my first term as a state legislator, the battle over Medicaid expansion was brought to the floor of the State House and it looks like we will be debating it again in year two.

The debate on the floor was energetic and notes were being passed to many of us freshman legislators to ask us to vote a certain way. The biggest argument in the debate to expand Medicaid was that if we don’t, we will be throwing away federal matching dollars and thousands of Maine people would not get benefits. Others questioned, what happens if the federal matching dollars runs out? This argument must have had some merit because when the debate went to the Senate, the bill was modified to have a clause that if the federal money ran out the expansion would be null and void.

It is interesting to think about the matching dollars scenario of the Medicaid expansion. This is being billed as free money. Where does the federal government get this free money? It comes from us, the people, through taxes. The only way that the matching dollars is free is if the Federal Reserve prints more money and uses that as the matching funds otherwise this free matching money is our tax money being circulated back to us.

It is an unfortunate fact that federal money does run out, and when it does it hurts people ”“ Maine people. This November, the people of Maine felt the impact of the automatic cut to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. This is happening because the food stamp program was temporarily expanded in 2009 as part of the Recovery Act. My research into this dilemma of to expand or not to expand shows that “Maine has the 10th highest level of SNAP enrollment in the country, with 251,000 of our 1.33 million residents using the program. If we assume an average benefit of around $124 per person, per month, that 5 percent cut equals a loss of $1.5 million worth of money for food to Maine families each month.” 

For many of my friends and neighbors in Old Orchard Beach, this loss of benefits has caused great hardship.

What happens if the Medicaid matching “free” money is reduced? What will happen to the thousands of Maine people who will come to rely on the Medicaid benefits? It is not good policy making to expand programs and make promises just to have them taken away. It is good policy making to really research the issues, debate the pros and cons, and then agree on a plan of action that is sustainable. It is my hope that the legislature and the governor will work together to make sure that Maine people are protected when it comes to Medicaid expansion.

— Rep. Sharri MacDonald represents House Distrsict 132, Old Orchard Beach. Her column appears on the fourth Monday of each month.