More than 71,000 Mainers signed up for the health insurance coverage, about a 5 percent decrease from last year.
Joe Lawlor
Staff Writer
Joe Lawlor writes about health and human services for the Press Herald. A 24-year newspaper veteran, Lawlor has worked in Ohio, Michigan and Virginia before relocating to Maine in 2013 to join the Press Herald. He is still considered “from away” but since then, he has learned what a “dooryard” is, eaten “whoopie pies” drank Moxie and boiled some “lobstahs.” The stories he enjoys most are when he learns something and meeting inspiring people.
He lives in South Portland - aka “SoPo” - with his wife, Melanie, and two school-age children.
Posted inLocal & State, News
USM’s Muskie School joins others in effort to bring medication-assisted opioid treatment to jails
The group is competing for a grant that would pay to go statewide with the program, which is considered the ‘gold standard’ to help those with substance use disorder.
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Posted inLocal & State, Politics
Trump administration funding formula causes Maine to lose out on millions in federal opioid money
Because officials used older data, the state missed a key cutoff, and funding dropped precipitously.
Posted inLocal & State, News, Politics
Court master moves to block state’s funding plan for new psychiatric facility
Daniel Wathen says Maine DHHS wants to pay a contractor to run the facility with $5.4 million that is supposed to fund community-based services.
Posted inBusiness, Life & Culture, Local & State, Nation & World, News, Schools and Education
Chamber, advocacy groups pair up to fight childhood poverty in Maine
Invest in Tomorrow intends to develop an action plan to help children, which ultimately will help the state’s workforce.
Posted inLocal & State, News
Community rallying around girl who lost both parents to cancer within weeks
Gwen Fletcher, 10, is forging ahead with support from a loving grandmother and the familiar touchstones of her life in rural Lyman.
Posted inLocal & State
Maine increases payments to providers treating opioid use disorder
Treatment experts applaud the move, but say it took the LePage administration too long to make significant investments in expanding treatment, given the severity of the opioid epidemic.
Posted inLocal & State, Politics
Judge affirms Medicaid expansion, but sets deadline that LePage won’t have to meet
While the ruling goes against the LePage administration, the judge pushes the enrollment date back to Feb. 1, when the governor will be Janet Mills, an advocate of expansion.
Posted inLocal & State, News
More patients expected as more doctors sign on to treat opioid use disorder
A Maine Medical Association campaign to coax more primary care doctors to offer medication-assisted treatment has paid off, but Medicaid expansion will test Maine’s capacity to meet the demand.
Posted inLocal & State, Politics
LePage requests stay of judge’s order to implement Medicaid expansion
The governor, who has consistently fought any growth in the Medicaid program, files the motion just five weeks before Gov.-elect Janet Mills is expected to implement expansion upon taking office.