PORTLAND, Maine (AP) – Residents in this rural state grappling with a heroin epidemic and an aging population voted Tuesday to deliver a rebuke to Republican Gov. Paul LePage and join 31 other states that have expanded Medicaid under former President Barack Obama’s health care law.
The referendum represents the first time since the law took effect that the question of expansion had been put in front of U.S. voters.
Some 11 million people in the country have gotten coverage through the expansion of Medicaid, a health insurance program for low income people.
LePage vetoed five different attempts by the state Legislature to expand the program. Tuesday’s vote follows repeated failures by President Donald Trump, a LePage ally, and his fellow Republicans in Congress to repeal the signature legislation of Obama, a Democrat.
“This is an exciting night in Maine, but also an exciting night for the country,” said David Farmer, spokesman for pro-expansion Mainers For Health Care. “Voters have made it clear they want more health care, not less.”