This month, Maine Monitor government accountability reporter Josh Keefe and senior public health reporter Rose Lundy talked about their recent reporting with editor Kate Cough.
Keefe discussed his recent story about a slate of bills that would change the way Maine’s child protection system defines abuse and neglect — a definition that influences the number of families that get pulled into the system.
The debates around each piece of legislation centered on concerns that Maine is unnecessarily investigating poor families and, in some cases, removing children for symptoms of poverty that are unfairly classified as neglect.
Maine has removed children at a higher rate than nearly every other state in recent years. This is despite the growing consensus that placing children in foster care can cause more long-term harm than the alleged maltreatment at home. Nationally, the foster care population fell 15 percent between 2018 and 2022. In Maine, it rose nearly 40 percent during that time, reaching a two-decade peak last year.
Lundy, meanwhile, discussed how cuts to Medicaid may impact Maine. Nationally, Republicans in Congress are pushing to cut about $880 billion in spending on health care and energy over 10 years. The nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has said this will be impossible to do without cuts to Medicaid, which covers about one in five Americans.
Maine Veterans’ Homes would require an additional $6 million from the state to continue operating if proposed cuts to Medicaid are enacted.
You can listen to the episode here. Tune in to listen live the first Thursday of every month at 4 p.m. on WERU 89.9 FM.
