MAINE
ASSOCIATION OF
INTERDEPENDENT
NEIGHBORHOODS
PEOPLE WORKING TOGETHER FOR PEACE, BREAD AND JUSTICE
MAIN Has High Hopes for Upcoming Legislative Session...But Needs Your Help! After several months of decision-making in which many members were involved, M.A.I.N. has created our 1999 - 2000 Legislative Agenda -- legislative proposals (bills) that will be considered by our elected officials in Augusta. You will find a complete list of these bills below.
We were very successful with our 1997-98 agenda and we have high hopes for this one. YOU made it happen! -- the Parents as Scholars Program, the increase in TANF, and expanded health care for children. You made the trips to Augusta to testify at public hearings or met with legislators in your home towns. You explained the importance of these changes on you and your families.
Once again, we need your help! Those of you who have been active in the past, know how important it is for MAIN members -- the people most affected by these bills -- to speak up. Legislators need to understand why these bills are important. Your stories are the key to their understanding.
Read the list of bills in our legislative agenda below. Do you have a
personal story that will help legislators understand how the bills will affect Maine people?
- Are you the parent of children on Medicaid but can't afford to get health insurance for yourself?
- Are you having problems finding a dentist to care for your child who is covered by Medicaid?
- Are you a low-income disabled or elderly person with high prescription drug costs?
- Are you an individual or a couple without children who doesn't qualify for Medicaid, doesn't have health insurance through your job or can't afford it on your own?
- Does your family have trouble making ends meet with your TANF benefits? Do you need a raise?
- Are you a Parents as Scholars participant worried sick about the additional 20 hour work requirement in your 3rd and 4th years of college?
- Have you been denied Unemployment Insurance because you were a part-time or seasonal worker or because you lost your job due to a child care or transportation problems?
Share your story. Help educate our policy makers!
If you can help, contact the Maine Equal Justice Project at 207-626-7058 or email at mhenderson@mejp.org
M.A.I.N.'s 1999 - 2000 Legislative Agenda Access to Health Care
134,000 Maine people have no health insurance. MAIN's legislative agenda would do something about it! Maine has new money that could be used to provide health care.
Late this fall Maine joined many other states in signing a settlement agreement with the tobacco industry that will bring millions of dollars into the State each year. This money is to repay states for what they spent in their Medicaid programs for smoking-related illnesses. As we currently understand it, Maine will receive $18 million dollars early in 1999, and approximately $50 million dollars each year beginning in the year 2000, and
increasing over time. MAIN will urge legislators and the Governor to use this new money to provide access to health care for people who are uninsured. Here are some of the bills this money could fund:Covering Parents! An Act to Promote Healthy Maine Families. Sponsor: Senator Chellie Pingree (D - North Haven)
This bill takes the much needed step of increasing access to health care for the parents of children covered by the Medicaid Program. It would provide Medicaid coverage to parents whose family incomes are under 150% of the federal poverty level--$20,484 for a family of 3. It would also provide access to Medicaid for the parents of Cub Care children if and when federal matching funds become available. This would bring parent coverage to 185% of the poverty level--$25,264 for a family of 3.
MAIN hopes to build on last year's legislative victory expanding health coverage to nearly 15,000 Maine children by making the point that those children will only be safe and healthy if their parents are healthy too.
Covering Prescription Drugs for the Elderly and Disabled! An Act to Increase Access to Prescription Drugs for Elderly and Disabled
Persons. Sponsor: Senator Chellie Pingree (D - North Haven)Imagine being disabled by heart disease and having to spend most of your meager income on life saving prescription drugs. MAIN often sees seniors and people with disabilities with income just over the poverty level spending a high percentage of their income on drugs. Their Medicare does not cover prescription drugs. They often must make the cruel choice between food and needed medicine.
This bill would provide the Medicaid drug benefit to people with disabilities and to elders 62 and over whose family income is under 185% of the federal poverty level--$14,896 for a single person and $20,091 for a couple. Medicaid eligibility is currently limited to elderly and disabled persons under the poverty level--$8052 for an individual and $10,860 for a couple.
Covering Those With No Safety Net! An Act to Increase Access to Health Care for Low Income Maine People. Sponsor: Representative Tom Kane (D - Saco)
In Maine, if you do not have minor children and you are not elderly or disabled, you are not eligible for state sponsored health care no matter how low your income. Yet more and more of Maine's jobs have lower wages and no affordable health benefits. This bill would give Medicaid coverage to individuals or couples without children if their income is less than 125% of the federal poverty level--$10,065 for an individual and $13,575 for a couple.
It is not yet clear whether Maine could get any financial support from the federal government if it were to offer benefits to these individuals. Two-thirds of the dollars spent in the Medicaid Program come from the federal government. These individuals do not qualify for Medicaid under current program rules, even though their incomes are very low, because they do not have children. Maine would have to get a "waiver" of those rules from the federal government to cover this group through the Medicaid Program.
Without support from the federal government Maine would have to pay the entire cost of covering these individuals, making this bill very costly. While MAIN feels strongly that the health care needs of this group of persons must be addressed, it may take more than one legislative session to achieve this goal.
Real Access to Dental Care! An Act to Increase Access to Oral Health Care. Sponsor: Speaker Steve Rowe (D - Portland)
One of the biggest complaints about the Medicaid Program is the lack of access to dental care for both children and adults. Medicaid will pay for dental coverage for children and emergency dental services for adults - if you can find a dentist who accepts Medicaid.
Over the past year, the Department of Human Services has increased the amount of money it pays to dentists and has established a toll-free line to help families find dentists who will take Medicaid, but access problems continue.
This bill would provide over $1.5 million in the next two years to help communities establish dental clinics that would be available to all regardless of income. These clinics would be required to accept Medicaid patients and offer services on a sliding fee scale to all others with incomes under 200% of the poverty level ($27,312 for a family of 3), including low-income adults. The community clinics would be required to have low-income people on their boards of directors.
TANF (Formerly AFDC)--Increasing TANF Benefits - who can live on $439 per month? An Act to Increase Access to Basic Needs for Low Income Children and Families. Sponsor: Senator Anne Rand (D - Portland)
After taking 5 cuts in the 1990s, Maine's TANF benefits remain shamefully low despite last year's important 5% increase. Maine benefits are the lowest in New England--over $100 per month less than the state paying the next lowest benefit. The nearly 25,000 children who need this assistance must survive on income
that is only 39% of the federal poverty level. Even when Food Stamps are considered, their monthly income remains nearly 30% below poverty.This legislation would increase monthly TANF checks by 5% again in 1999 for all families receiving benefits. It would also require a 5% increase each year until Maine reaches the monthly New England average for a family of 3. The New England average is currently $574 a month compared to Maine's current benefit of $439. We have a long way to go, but an annual increase would be a reliable means of getting us there faster.
Parents as Scholars (PaS)--Leveling the Playing Field for Parents as Scholars! An Act to Improve Access to Education for Parents As Scholars Participants. Sponsor: Representative Michael Quint (D - Portland)
In 1997 the Legislature created the Parents as Scholars program to assure that parents who are eligible for TANF retain access to higher education. Now, nearly 1,000 parents are now enrolled in the Parents as Scholars Program (PaS).
In their first two years they are required to participate 20 hours per week. School and study time both count toward these required hours. However, after 2 years, parents are required to work 20 hours in addition to going to school. School and study time do not count toward this additional requirement. This is nearly twice what parents in the TANF program are required to do.
As a result, parents who are struggling to go to school, raise a family and study must also fit 20 hours of work into their already very full schedules. Many simply can't do it and feel pressured to leave school. Others despair as their grades drop because they cannot find enough hours in the day to study.
This legislation would eliminate this second 20-hour requirement for parents who have been in PaS for more than two years. It will allow them to focus their energy on finishing their education, and help them get into the work force sooner with a degree that will allow them to better support their families.
Unemployment Insurance--Fix Unemployment Insurance! An Act to Make the Unemployment Compensation Program More Responsive to the
Needs of Today's Workforce and Ensure the Solvency of the Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund. Sponsor: Representative Pam Hatch (D. Skowhegan)There are two crises in today's unemployment insurance program. First, it does not cover many people who need it. Only 1 out 4 workers receive unemployment when they lose their job. Unbelievably, only 1 out of 10 working women who receive TANF got unemployment when they lost their job.
The second crisis is that the system is in danger of going broke. The trust fund from which benefits are paid is paying out more funds - even in this economy - than it is able to get in taxes.
This legislation addresses both problems. First, it expands benefits so that they will be more available to part-time and seasonal workers, and persons who lose their jobs because of a child care or transportation problem. Second, it increases the amount of money available for the program by increasing, and more fairly distributing employer contributions to the trust fund.
Food Stamps for Legal Immigrants--Continue Food Stamps for Legal Immigrants! An Act to Ensure Adequate Nutrition for Low Income Legal Aliens. Sponsor: Representative Michael Quint (D - Portland)
Many legal immigrants lost food stamp benefits as a result of the federal welfare reform bill passed in 1996. Last year, the Maine Legislature restored benefits to immigrants with State funds, but will end those benefits in June of 1999. This legislation would continue to provide this much needed food assistance after June, 1999.
Other Legislation of Interest to MAIN
It is to still too early to be able to report on all legislation affecting low income people and families that will be debated in this legislative session. However, we do know that the following important issues will be considered:
Minimum Wage. Several legislators have introduced bills increasing the minimum wage by varying amounts. At least one would increase the minimum wage each year based on the amount of inflation in the prior year. MAIN has been a long time supporter of a higher minimum wage. Last year a minimum wage increase was passed by the legislature, but vetoed by the governor.
State Earned Income Tax Credit. We know of at least one bill that would create a State Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for low income families with children. This bill will likely set the amount of the state credit at a percentage of the federal (EITC). For example, if a family was eligible for $2,000 from the federal EITC, they might receive a state EITC equaling 20% of the federal credit, or $400. We do not yet know what the amount of credit proposed in this bill will be.
Ombudsman Legislation. This legislation is the result of the work of a Commission to study the need for ombudsman services in the Departments of Human Services and Mental Health. An ombudsman investigates complaints and assist in achieving fair settlements. This legislation would establish an ombudsman for the Department of Human Services to help people in the TANF, ASPIRE, and Medicaid Programs, and those involved with the child welfare system. This bill would also make a number of other changes including:
- Requiring DHS to monitor sanctions in the TANF Program to make sure that people are not sanctioned if they have "good cause" for failing to follow program rules;
- Providing access to a fair hearing for families involved with the child protective system, to challenge any conditions that the Department may make on the family before taking custody of a child;
- Requiring DHS to give information to families involved with the child protective system about their legal rights.
Transportation. MAIN has long been concerned about transportation problems faced by low income people, particularly those living in rural areas. It costs more than many families have to keep a car on the road. Yet few in Maine today can maintain a job without one. This session, Senator Sharon Treat (D. Gardiner) will introduce legislation that calls for action on this issue. Senator Treat's goal is to provide greater access to transportation for low income people while at the same time reducing air pollution from
older, less dependable vehicles.Electric Utilities. MAIN has also been concerned about protecting access to essential utilities - like electricity -- for low income people. MAIN is part of a larger group of organizations, including CMP, that is supporting a bill to create a state-wide low income electric program.
This program will help people with their electric bills so that no low income household has to pay more than 11% of their income on electricity. This is like today's program run by CMP. ( CMP, Maine Public Service and Bangor Hydro-electric currently each operate a different program.)The state-wide program would be administered by the Maine State Housing Authority, contracting with CAP agencies. It would be funded from a trust fund that included money from both electric rates (which funds the programs now) and from a one-time tax revenue paid by the electric utilities when they sell their generation facilities as a result of electric restructuring.
Early Childhood Education and Child Care. There are numerous bills in this legislative session that focus on helping families and communities raise healthy, safe children ready to learn. Start ME Right, a coalition of providers, advocates and legislators will introduce several bills aimed at: supporting parents with home visits; providing quality child care; teaching parenting skill in schools and communities; and encouraging businesses and communities to help.
If you care about these issues and have not yet joined the Maine Association of Interdependent Neighborhoods, now is the time to do so! Please contact MAIN's president Judy Guay at 207-947-4371 or by email at krjguay@bangornews.infi.net to become a member of one of Maine's largest low-income advocacy groups working on issues that greatly affect the lives of low-income people. Join today and make your voice heard!
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