Maine Medicaid referendum is a ‘significant’ burden on the state: Judge Napolitano
Maine Gov. Paul LePage vetoed a bill aimed at expanding Medicaid in the state. When the state’s legislature failed to override the veto, voters bypassed the legislature and governor and approved a referendum expanding Medicaid to low-income adults, a key feature of the Affordable Care Act. Judge Andrew Napolitano, Fox News senior judicial analyst, discussed the referendum, telling the FOX Business Network’s Stuart Varney, “It actually expands it to 70,000 more people, which in a state the size of Maine is a significant new percentage of financial burden on the state.”
Varney then asked if this could lead to voters in other states with similar abilities to bypass the legislature to expand Medicaid as well.
“Yes it does, but there are very few of them, most states do not have this sort of Swiss-like ability for the voters to override their own government,” Napolitano replied on “Varney & Co.”
Despite Republicans’ efforts to repeal ObamaCare, when Varney suggested the referendum is an indication that many voters, particularly in the Northeast, support socialized medicine and want the U.S. to be more like Europe, Napolitano responded, “I agree with you fully Stuart, it’s very distressing because it will lead to single payer. If this is a domino effect that begins cascading around the country, Barack Obama will have triumphed.”