WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Puerto Rico Deaths After Hurricane Maria and LePage refuses to Expand MaineCare after Referendum

Key Discussion Points:

This week the New England Journal of Medicine published a Harvard study which places the death toll in Puerto Rico, as a result of Hurricane Maria, at 4,645, as opposed to the federal government’s official claim of 64. We speak with a nurse from Bangor, Maine who traveled to Puerto Rico twice as part of the RN Response Network following Hurricane Maria, and witnessed the conditions of an unaddressed medical crisis that indicated a much higher rate of deaths would result.

Last month, Maine Equal Justice Partners filed a lawsuit against the LePage Administration for its failures to implement the expansion or Medicaid, or Maine Care, as directed by the passage of last November’s referendum.

The LePage Administration has not met deadlines to expand Medicaid access to Maine residents in preparation for the set goal of July 2nd for new enrollment. 70,000 Mainers would be eligible to receive health care coverage under the expansion.

Guests:
Amy Tidd, Bangor RN, National Nurses United, RN Response Network
Robyn Merrill, executive director, Maine Equal Justice Partners