AUGUSTA — A majority of voters said yes to Medicaid expansion at the polls Tuesday. On Wednesday, the governor said he’s unlikely to do so.

Fifty-nine percent of those voting (according to unofficial totals) approved Medicaid expansion, which proponents said would insure 70,000 or more low-income Mainers.

But Gov. Paul LePage said it will cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars to give “free” health care to working-age, able-bodied adults,, according to a prepared statement.

During his tenure in office, the governor vetoed five times attempts by the Legislature to expand Medicaid.

Increasing the Medicaid rolls to include those under age 65 earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level went into effect at the federal level on Jan. 1, 2014, with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.

States had the option of whether to expand coverage — 31 have done so — with the federal government picking up 94 percent of the cost of the newly eligible enrollees. The federal share would decrease annually until 2020 when it hits 90 percent, where it will remain.

Prior to the election, the governor spoke out against Medicaid expansion saying it would cost the state $500 million over the next five years.

On Wednesday he spoke out again against the voter-approved expansion.

When the state last expanded Medicaid in 2002, “it created a $750 million debt to hospitals, resulted in massive budget shortfalls every year … and took resources away from our most vulnerable residents — the elderly and the intellectually and physically disabled,” LePage said.

Credit agencies predict Medicaid expansion will hurt Maine’s budget,” he said. “Therefore, my administration will not implement Medicaid expansion until it has been fully funded by the Legislature.”

Democrats in Maine immediately pushed back. State Sen. Troy Jackson said Medicaid expansion is now “the law of the land in Maine” and Democrats will fight to implement it fully.”

“Democrats will not give an inch in this fight because it is a matter of life and death,” Jackson said.

“Mainers want more access to healthcare, not less, and are no longer willing to wait,” Speaker of the House Sara Gideon said in a statement release Wednesday. “The Legislature will move swiftly to fund Medicaid expansion as required by law.”

The passage by Maine voters of ballot questions hasn’t always immediately led to changes of state law in recent memory. Voters last year approved referendums about school taxes, legalized marijuana, minimum wage and a ballot change that allows voters to rank their candidate choices, and none has been fully implemented a year later.

Democratic Sen. Justin Chenette, who represents Saco, Old Orchard Beach, Hollis, Limington and part of Buxton, said he’s very frustrated by the governor and others who are not following the people’s desires as expressed at the ballot box.

“It’s an affront to democracy,” he said, that the governor and some legislators are “cherry picking” which referendums passed by residents that they will implement.

Chenette has submitted a resolution, LR 2690, that would amend the state Constitution and would “prohibit for one year the enactment of legislation that amends or repeals a law proposed by Citizen Initiative that was enacted by referendum.”

Chenette’s proposal must be approved if it is to be taken up when the Legislature next convenes on Jan. 3.

— Associate Editor Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 324, or dmendros@journaltribune.com. The Associated Press contributed to this story.