Maine

Maine manages to retain most Medicare enrollees even as pandemic-era protections end • Maine Morning Star

Published

2 years ago

August 5, 2024

Maine manages to retain most Medicare enrollees even as pandemic-era protections end • Maine Morning Star

As pandemic-era protections end, Maine has managed to keep almost 70 percent of people formerly relying on state healthcare on Medicaid, a rate better than the national average and many other states.

More than 300,000 Mainers have renewed their MaineCare coverage so far, according to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. MaineCare is the state’s name for federal Medicaid, which provides health coverage to millions of low-income adults, children, pregnant individuals, elderly adults and people with disabilities.

Approximately 13 percent of all renewals have been terminated, either due to procedural reasons such as an incomplete form or missing information, or due to enrollees being deemed ineligible. The rest are applications pending manually or automatic renewals.

That amounts to an enrollment decline of 16,000 people from MaineCare, according to Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy, which tracks data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on the Medicaid unwinding.

During the COVID-19 public health emergency, the federal government offered states extra benefits to keep people enrolled in Medicaid. So even if an individual’s income increased and they no longer qualified, they still retained free dental, mental and health care benefits.

That coverage, known as continuous enrollment, officially ended in March 2023. So starting in spring 2023, states had approximately a year to redetermine eligibility and terminate coverage for people who would no longer be eligible. Maine started unwinding last April, and the unwinding period ends this October.

States have had varying success rates retaining healthcare coverage for residents, with states such as Oregon and Arizona keeping more than 80 percent of enrollees covered with state Medicaid programs, while millions of Texans lost Medicaid coverage.

The national average was a 63 percent retention rate, according to Allie Gardner, a research fellow at Georgetown.

“Medicaid enrollees largely had greater protections from disenrollment in Maine than they did in other states.”

There is no one clear reason Maine successfully kept most people who need MaineCare enrolled in the program, according to John Gale, a senior research associate at the Maine Rural Health Research Center within University of Southern Maine.

“It’s a combination of factors, I think; manageable population, reasonable policies, a smaller number of enrollees to track down, and an accepting political climate,” he said.

“Part of it is we don’t see the same level of anxiety or anger towards people on Medicaid. I mean, we pretty much accepted that this is an important safety net program for people who don’t normally, who may not qualify for coverage under the marketplaces.”

Maine’s start to unwinding was with noncompliance

Despite this overall success, the state had an uphill battle to keep most eligible Mainers covered under MaineCare when unwinding began.

In April 2023, Maine was one of the only states not in compliance with CMS because it was not offering any passive renewals, called ex parte renewals, for people already on Medicaid. Through ex parte renewals, an existing member’s eligibility can be determined automatically through available data sources, such as income data, without requiring action by the enrollee, which saves time and paperwork for state employees.

Until August 2023, all MaineCare renewals had to be done manually, but when CMS did their review of state compliance of federal renewal requirements prior to the unwinding, they found that Maine was not in compliance, Gardner said. CMS then worked with the state’s health department to develop mitigation strategies until they were able to get their ex parte system up and running.

One of the included the state not being able to terminate any coverage until there was an ex parte renewal either automatically through the system, or through manual workarounds with employees replicating that ex parte process, Gardner said.

“Considering where Maine was at the start of the unwinding with no ex parte renewals, I’d actually say it’s pretty impressive where they are,” she said.

“Cumulatively, Maine’s ex parte rate is right around 25 percent, and there are states that were doing ex parte and had those systems in place that have far lower ex parte renewals throughout the unwinding.”

Lowest rate of procedural disenrollments across the country

There are two ways someone enrolled in Medicaid can lose their coverage during unwinding: if they are deemed ineligible based on the updated eligibility requirements, or if they are disenrolled due to a missing form or information.

Only 20 percent of Mainers who were up for renewal were procedurally disenrolled, according to Georgetown data, which is the lowest procedural disenrollment rate of all states. The vast majority of disenrolled people were not deemed eligible under the updated requirements.

Because Maine was not able during those first few months of unwinding to end someone’s coverage until they had an automatic system, Gardner said this basically meant that the first few months of Maine’s unwinding, no one was terminated from coverage if they had missing or incomplete information, or if they were unresponsive.

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Maine

Maine man accused of lighting bed on fire after fight with girlfriend

Published

11 hours ago

March 10, 2026

Press Room

Maine man accused of lighting bed on fire after fight with girlfriend

WISCASSET, Maine (WMTW) – A Maine man has been arrested after police say he intentionally set a bed on fire after a dispute with his girlfriend, while they were still in it.

Police responded Monday, March 9, to a report of a fire that had been intentionally set inside a home on Beechnut Hill Road, according to the Wiscasset Police Department.

Investigators say the homeowner, Terry Couture, 41, set the bed on fire following an argument while both he and his girlfriend were in it. Authorities said the fire was extinguished and no serious injuries were reported.

Couture was arrested and charged with attempted murder, arson, aggravated criminal mischief, and domestic violence criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon.

The investigation is ongoing.

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Maine

Celebrate Maine Maple Weekend at Williams Family Farm

Published

23 hours ago

March 9, 2026

Press Room

Celebrate Maine Maple Weekend at Williams Family Farm

CLIFTON, Maine (WABI) – Maine Maple Sunday is less than two weeks away, and the Williams Family Farm in Clifton is gearing up for one of the sweetest seasons yet.

A long stretch of frost and snow meant a late start this year, but the first boil of sap has finally run through the evaporator, and maple season is officially underway.

At Williams Family Farm, everything is done by hand:

Fresh maple syrup, bottled on-site
Maple sugar, carefully extracted in small batches
Baked candied pecans, cashews, and more

The Williams family has spent years working with whatever weather sends their way.

Long winters, surprise warmups, and everything in between—they’ve learned how to adapt so community members can enjoy their products.

As co-owner John Williams explains, the key is in the temperature.

“You need to have it warm during the day and still freezing at night, so typically that’s the middle of February,” said Williams. “We have a lot of trees, so we have to start tapping them before the conditions are ideal, so we start tapping way before it’s time for it to run just so we can get them all tapped. If you have ten trees in your backyard, you want to wait until roughly now, the middle of February to now, and when it’s actually running and put them in then because you can put all your taps in, in one day.”

They’re excited to welcome the community during Maine Maple Weekend on March 21 and 22.

They will be boiling up sap, hosting demonstrations, and providing free samples.

Locals can also join them for their third annual pancake breakfast where all proceeds are donated to Holbrook Recreation.

Follow the link to find out their hours for March and more.

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Maine

AI comes with dangers and opportunities. How is Maine responding?

Published

1 day ago

March 9, 2026

Press Room

AI comes with dangers and opportunities. How is Maine responding?

People watch from the gallery during a 2026 House of Representatives session at the Maine State House in Augusta. (Joe Phelan/Staff Photographer)

The ad begins with a woman standing in a department store who sort of looks like Gov. Janet Mills, but not quite.

“Introducing the Janet Mills collection, featuring a confusing choice that forces girls to compete against biological males,” the female narrator says over banal instrumental music as the video cuts to “Mills” holding a stopwatch by an outdoor track.

The Mills collection comes “with a no-parent-permission-required estrogen kit,” the narrator continues, as the imposter holds a kit of syringes while patting a boy’s hair, which seems suspiciously stiff. The commercial ends with a real picture of the governor.

As far as ads generated by artificial intelligence go, the one from the National Republican Senatorial Committee is not very convincing. But the commercial serves as a reminder about how the emerging technology is being integrated into political campaigns and other areas of life in Maine.

If state Democratic leaders get their way, AI-generated ads like this won’t be allowed in Maine without a disclaimer.

As AI technology rapidly improves, state policymakers are weighing a variety of measures that could affect how Mainers interact with it. They are taking a two-pronged approach to protect people, especially children, from potential harms — while also preparing for the possible benefits.

Gov. Janet Mills acknowledges the Maine State Legislature as she begins her final State of the State Address in the House Chamber in Augusta on Jan. 27 (Daryn Slover/Staff Photographer)

The technology comes in the form of virtual personal assistants, internet search results and targeted advertising by businesses. It’s being used by governments for things ranging from traffic signals to budgets and policymaking to facial recognition to surveillance.

Mills said in a written statement that AI could help improve lives, drive economic growth and solve complex problems, but that it must be used in a “prudent, responsible, and ethical manner.”

“As AI becomes more prevalent in our society, its considerable promise must be balanced against harms — known and unforeseen — that can emerge from its widespread use,” she said. “It’s clear we’re only at the beginning of AI’s evolution.”

The governor has proposed $6.7 million in her supplemental budget to begin implementing some of the recommendations of a 21-member task force she created last year to study the issue.

Her proposal, which is being reviewed by lawmakers, would create a statewide AI literacy campaign; fund local and state partnerships to help municipalities use the technology and offer grants to support job training programs to keep Maine’s workforce competitive and productive in AI-enabled workplaces, among other things.

Lawmakers, meanwhile, are considering bills to address potential harms. In a rare bipartisan move, Republicans and Democrats voted unanimously last month in support of a bill (LD 524) making AI-generated child sex abuse material illegal. But that bill must receive about $55,000 before it can be sent to the governor.

They are also considering bills:

To require political ads in state and local elections to include a disclosure when AI-generated or altered material is used (LD 517).
To stop human-like chatbots or social AI companions from interacting with children (LD 2162).
And to regulate how the technology is used in mental health settings (LD 2082).

Last year, lawmakers passed a measure including AI-generated images in the state’s ban on so-called “revenge porn,” and one requiring companies to inform consumers when they’re interacting with an AI assistant. Mills signed both into law.

Other proposals regulating AI use in medical and dental insurance claims and in setting rents died in committees. So did one prohibiting the use of AI in “dynamic pricing,” in which businesses use the technology to offer different real-time prices to different consumers.

Over 1,000 measures focusing on artificial intelligence were debated in state capitols last year, the National Conference of State Legislatures said.

Some states, such as Colorado and California, are taking steps to enact a broad regulatory framework for AI. California has provisions preventing discrimination in the workplace and requiring watermarks on AI content and transparency around data used to produce reports.

But Maine lawmakers are seeking to address potential harms on a case-by-case basis — at least for now.

Rep. Amy Kuhn. D-Falmouth, is leading House Democratic efforts to regulate artificial intelligence. (Joe Phelan/Staff Photographer)

“I think of it as almost a whack-a-mole type of approach where we are developing legislation that very narrowly addresses specific harms of AI,” said Rep. Amy Kuhn, D-Falmouth, who is taking the lead for House Democrats.

“That sort of overarching regulatory framework just feels a little premature for Maine to me right now. I want to see that work its way through the states and let some other states take a swing before we get in there.”

Republicans, however, are worried about overregulation.

Rep. Jennifer Poirier, R-Skowhegan, supports protecting children from artificial intelligence caused by AI, but thinks adults need to use common sense. (Joe Phelan/Staff Photographer)

Rep. Jennifer Poirier, R-Skowhegan, said her caucus is focused on protecting children from potential harms associated with AI, but she worries that regulation will never keep up with AI’s evolution.

“You can’t always legislate your way out of everything,” Poirier said. “If you have a minor that has access to AI, and it can be used to harm them in any way, it’s our responsibility as adults to keep them safe. … But we are adults, and we need to use our own common sense.”

A recent poll from Pan Atlantic Research showed widespread concern about AI, with 66% of the 810 Mainers surveyed saying they’re mostly concerned about the potential problems of AI, while 25% were mostly optimistic.

More advanced programs can generate text, analyze reports and create increasingly lifelike images and videos. A recent AI video purporting to show Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt throwing down over the death of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein raised alarm bells in Hollywood over its realism.

Other programs have been used by businesses in ways critics say can be exploitative. Consumer Reports recently published a story about how the online grocery shopping service Instacart used AI to charge certain customers higher prices — up to 23% more — if they were flagged as having higher incomes. Instacart reportedly stopped offering stores this option for “surveillance pricing” after the story was published in December.

A lobbying effort is underway to promote AI regulation in Maine. The “Protect What’s Human” campaign launched a website earlier this year, and a spokesperson said they have invested about $210,000 in ads supporting AI regulations. The commercials are targeting Republicans voters in the Bangor and Portland regions. The group is planning to spend another $110,000 on TV, streaming services, social media and podcasts.

Other proposals passed by the Legislature reflect lawmakers’ attempts to get ahead of the AI issue in indirect ways.

The House and Senate have each recently passed a strict data privacy law that would greatly restrict the amount of data — a person’s location, browsing and shopping histories and biometric information, for example— that companies can collect, store and sell. One of the main arguments was that such data can be used to train AI models. However, the chambers will have to iron out the differences between their two versions of the measure, LD 1822, if it is to become law.

And local residents are beginning to grapple with proposed data centers, which have been controversial in other parts of the county because they consume large amounts of water. This is especially true for centers powering AI.

Lawmakers are considering a bill, LD 307, to create a moratorium on such centers and establish a state council to study and review the impact of building them in Maine.

Construction is underway on a data center in Aroostook County, while another is being proposed in Sanford. Others have been proposed in Wiscasset and Lewiston, but did not move forward.

“This whole world is shifting to computer everything,” Poirier said, “and it’s important that we keep up with the times on that.”

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