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KenDurf t1_j0hjocc wrote

Reply to comment by TDGroupie in Maine Will Have a New Minimum Wage Beginning on January 1st by Shake-Spear4666

Hi, Medicaid policy wonk here. MaineCare will be 133percent of the federal poverty line as an expanded state which depends on household size. So the FPL needs to be adjusted but not at the expense of minimum wage on our state.

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TDGroupie t1_j0i1arb wrote

So if it’s based on federal guidelines and those haven’t changed then someone in Maine who’s wages go up because of this new state policy are in danger of losing their benefits if the increase eclipses the federal poverty line, right?

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KenDurf t1_j0i4fxe wrote

There is a world where someone could loose their benefits. Medicaid eligibility is notoriously behind so if you’re an individual in that situation, I’d recommend letting them locate the discrepancy.

My point was, if you put off raising minimum wage because a small subset of people would loose services, you do a different disservice. The Medicaid expansion (moving from 100 to 133 FPL) outweighs the increase in minimum wage since then.

It’s also worth noting that Medicaid expansion hoped for competitive private plans on the marketplace but in practice that hasn’t happened. So this hypothetical family where they don’t want an increase in their minimum wage pay because they’d loose benefits, should be able to purchase a federally subsidized plan off the marketplace - which they still can, it’s just expensive and worse care than Medicaid.

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nattatalie t1_j0kz6rl wrote

This is a problem with all of the programs that are based on federal income guidelines. Due to inflation and slightly higher wages many people who truly need access to things like WIC, Mainecare/Medicare, and LIHEAP, etc can’t get those services because they make too much money and the federal guidelines haven’t caught up at all.

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nattatalie t1_j0kza50 wrote

This is a problem with all of the programs that are based on federal income guidelines. Due to inflation and slightly higher wages many people who truly need access to things like WIC, Mainecare/Medicare, and LIHEAP, etc can’t get those services because they make too much money and the federal guidelines haven’t caught up at all.

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