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• StillRelaxin

  Dear, dear, Mary Mayhew acting as though such overpayments have suddenly come out of the blue. If she really wanted to know the scoop on where such funds vanish, all she need to is walk over to House Speaker Nutting’s office. He probably knows better than anyone how such scams work out in the Maine business circles.

• Anonymous

  Paging Mr. Baldacci, paging Mr. Baldacci, please report to the O.R (Over-Re-imburse) section of DHHS.

• Anonymous

  Unbelievable!!!!!!! This state, the people is charge, the accounting system are such a mess!!! Imagine if every working person or anyone who has a checking account maintained it the way the state or the federal government runs theirs!!!!! They speak of these over payments like it is not big deal, yet the entire state is on the brink of going belly up due to debt. Cut back on some of the people getting assistance, PLEASE!!! When I see perfectly capable people driving, walking, doing what I do except work, that is the problem with society and this state. Sorry for ranting, but yet again, I am tired of seeing my paycheck get smaller because I have to fund an inferior system!!!

• Anonymous

  What a suprise!!! DHHS cant figure out what basic math is…..People have been ripping the system off for years with the help of DHHS and about 50% of them can afford insurance. Knocked up women that live with their boyfriends getting free care, its time to dump this useless system and start over. Same as the drunks getting s/s as they are to drunk to work but still do odd jobs and make money…the system is breaking our backs, dump the whole mess….People that use drugs til they destroy themselfs…to bad!! Cure yourself!!

• Anonymous

  Keeping shining the light on these rats, the party is over!

• Anonymous

  The past Administration might have had their hearts in the right place, but they were pretty lousy administrators.

• Anonymous

  SO you simply scapegoat the situation placing blame on one Rep. instead of removing your head from the sand and understand that there was a dismal failure on behalf of the prior administration to manage taxpayer money appropriately. Thank goodness that change has come to Augusta. The next item on the agenda will be the illegal unfunded liabilities that were added to the state Pension system through complicity of a task force of union leaders and legislators. Do believe that politicians should ignore the will of the people after they prohibited unfunded liabilities through a constitutional amendment? Or are the new leaders to blame for that also? I am certain you will find some illogical reason to place blame where it does not belong. In many cases these people were clearly aware of what they were doing. If it was you or I we would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law…and why not them.

• Anonymous

  “We inherited a big mess, but we are going to get it fixed and find solutions that work for consumers, providers and the taxpayers,” the governor said.

  That’s not going to sit well with a few posters here on the BDN.

• Anonymous

  If it was an individual who had “overcharged” the system they would go to jail.
  If it is a corporation, they get to pay it back.
  If it was the legislature…oh well let’s make a bill to legalize it.

• Anonymous

  Don’t worry he will be setting the DOD military health care straight…

• Anonymous

  This financial forensic audit team did a great job in unraveling the Medicaid payment details. Now, hopefully this team can and will turn their attention to the Maine Maritime Academy. A cost/benefits analysis is way overdue.

• Anonymous

  It is not this State, and it is not these people. Big government can not work efficiently. Period! When people educated beyond their intelligence have control of other people’s money, this is just one example of what happens. The pendulum is swinging back, but it is going to hit a lot of folks, both innocent and guilty, on the way. Find joy in the simple things, and be as ready as possible to help others.

• Anonymous

  I’m confused here. When Working n the health care environment, the billing department matched up claims with the monies coming in from Mainecare because they usually send payments in “bulk.” So what are these hospitals and such doing now? You’re just assuming it’s right and not taking the time to match up the claims with the money you’re receiving? A bit ago Mainecare wasn’t paying its bills, and now they’ve overpaid them? Where’s the responsibility on the hospitals and officces receiving the money? Shouldn’t the overpayments be sent back, if you are doing your jobs right. Shame all the way around.

• Anonymous

  OK, I am confused. When one is paying bills in the medical field, most billers match up the claims with the Mainecare bulk checks that come into an office or facility. So have all of these hospitals stopped doing their jobs and just assume the correct amounts are there. So before places are screaming they’re not getting reimbursed, and now they’ve been getting too much? If you are overpaid, you send it back. Even if it’s $10.00, if it’s not covering a claim, I send it back to the insurance company. Shame on both sides.

• Anonymous

  Change has come by rewarding one of those scam artists by making him Speaker of the House? Some change. Sounds like business as usual.

• Anonymous

  Not really…one of those very same rats now sits as Speaker of the Maine House

• Anonymous

  Aren’t Maine hospitals the very same ones who cried that they weren’t receiving their payments on time? It seems as though they were receiving that and more…but none of them seemingly ever called the state and said, “Ummm…You overpaid us by 10 million dollars and we’d like to return it…”

• Anonymous

  Their hearts were in their pocketbooks, which led their hands to be in ours.

• Anonymous

  I wouldn’t consider Nutting exempt from scrutiny nor do I believe he is any different than any other scam artist and maybe more of a problem because he was elected leader. Without keeping an eye on these folks they will bilk us for all we are worth irregardless of party. However the good honest folks need to watch the hen house for foxes. The prior administration was evidently oblivious to what was occurring, because they weren’t watching the shop.

• Anonymous

  In politics 101, when you have to tell the taxpayers you’ve screwed up royal, start with a statement indicating YOU are the person who will save the day with a statement such as “Maine discovers” or “I’ve found” or “The previous administration”

  Better get the company athena health in Belfast to do the billing for Maine. At least square pegs would be going into square holes.

• Anonymous

  More corporate greed. Hospitals whine about how the state won’t pay them, yet here they are lining their pockets. Hospital administrators and doctors are too rich already, but they always want more, so they have to steal our money!

• Jazz11

  Gee you mean a Maine Business that needs LESS RED TAPE is caught stealing? Yea Governor let’s cut more laws protecting us in favor of thieves…. er, I mean businessmen.

• Anonymous

  You can’t blame the state workers here. They are trying. But it’s hard to focus on your job when you are worried that LePuppet is going to cut your paycheck, not to mention cutting the department budget. You want somebody to watch the books? You gotta pay for it!

  Baldacci was no better. Why was there no time to look at the books carefully? Furlough days. Hard to get work done when you aren’t even at work!

• Anonymous

  Incompetent people not doing their job and worrying more about ‘transgender’ people and their private rights; and the rest of the wayward species out there…..

• Tyke

  During the supplemental budget process hospitals lined up and cried that they would all have to close because the state wasn’t paying them enough. They did this while being overpaid at a very high rate and the governor’s “expert” on hospitals either was complicit in the deception or so incompetent she bought the lies hook line and sinker.

  Lepage then shuffled millions of dollars around and shortchanged municipalities of money that had already been committed in their budgets and gave the millions upon millions taken from them to the whining (and lying) hospitals.

  The Lepage “expert” who either helped the lying or did not recognize it is now the DHHS Commissioner.

• Tyke

  Correction:

  An individual REPUBLICAN POLITICIAN who “overcharged” the system gets elected as one of their leaders.

• Tyke

  … and Lepage’s “expert” on hospitals (their former head lobbyist) did not recognize this?

  Yeah – riiiight,

  fortunately (for the hospitals) she is now the DHHS Commissioner.

• Anonymous

  Somebody is lying here.
  If you’re a hospital getting millions in overpayment shouldn’t an honest hospital administrator (I do realize the oxymoron), say something. If it happened in my checking account they’d throw me in jail for not saying anything.
  Mayhew, who was vice president of the Maine Hospital Association: I gotta think if multi million excess payment are funneling to your member hospitals you’d know about it, (and probably encouraged it to continue). I can see ignoring a million here and there, but $66 million is real money. Might that warrant a criminal investigation of anyone who might have known this was happening?

• Tyke

  They probably figured that since Lepage appointed their former head lobbyist as DHHS Commissioner it would turn out OK.

• Tyke

  You think the IT and finance folks at DHHS spend their days “worrying more about ‘transgender’ people and their private rights”???

  You might want to loosen up that tin foil hat. It seems to be squeezing your brain way too tightly and restricting blood flow.

• Anonymous

  From the article above “The overpayments from MaineCare, the state’s Medicaid program, started in September.”

  Governor LePage was elected in November and took office in January right?

  So if this began in September and the former Governor and his appointees were still in office, explain to me how this fail on Governor LePage and his appointees?

  If you believe Governor LePage is responsible, doesn’t this make President Obama and his appointees just as responsible for everything that occurred prior to his taking office in January of 2009?

• Anonymous

  Read the article again… overpayment by over 10 million a week for the past 6 weeks..66 million overpaid…. due to changes in the system. Now how is the previous administration responsible for that?

• Anonymous

  Yet when Obama used those very same words, he was accused of passing the buck and not accepting responsibility. Funny how that works…

• honey777

  I’d also look at payments to hospitals for mental health services that are bundled. For example, say someone goes into a hospital for a mental crisis or substance abuse. Services are bundled; in other words they charge a flat rate per day for those services. Say that is supposed to include group therapy. If the person doesn’t participate in the group therapy, they are still charged the flat rate. It’s kind of like paying for everything whether or not you use it.

• Anonymous

  In addition, MaineCare payments to service providers have jumped by approximately $10 million a week for the the past six weeks. Mayhew said analysts are trying to determine what is driving the increase. If the trend continues, MaineCare will exceed its annual budget by $30 million by the end of this fiscal year and a supplemental budget may need to be drafted.

  10 million a week for the last 6 weeks… 60 million… and that is the fault of the previous administration?

• Anonymous

  You must work in that field and are of that persuasion and I HIT you little nerve?

  My blood flows fine and my brain is in the normal state; not some sick way like many down there in Augusta and surrounding hamlets…..

  I also know people who pay for insurance (yes, they actually work) but now have problems with alcohol; the insurance company won’t pay for inpatient care; but sure as I am sitting here writing this some transgender is getting his/her medical paid for by insurance company; give me a break! You will see some day that there will be many problems from the ‘right’ on this than those that wrong on this type of sh*t…sic:

• Anonymous

  And people wonder why the politician Dora Mills was let go…

• Anonymous

  I’m so upset I could spit…. especially since it mostly happened in the last 6 weeks of the LePage admin. since they changed the payment rules.

• http://twitter.com/rklindell R. Kenneth Lindell

  This shouldn’t be a problem. DHHS can just deduct the overpayments from the millions of old hospital underpayments that the LePage administration has promised to repay.

  What’s the big deal? ;)

• Anonymous

  Give me a break unionman…I am a state worker and there hasn’t been any talk at all of anyone thats going to lose their jobs within the agencies. Just more liberal media propaganda to add fear to everyone is all it is. As far as cutting the budget for each department, if the voters in this state actually knew how much money is wasted each year they would have voted out the liberals in charge years ago.

• blueeyes1970

  HMMMMM… I wonder how everyone can blame this on the state workers and teachers, too?

• Anonymous

  The changeover in accounting systems happened under Baldacci’s lack of oversight, as did the disallowed Medicaid, Medicare charges. Had Baldacci been in office, this would not have been discovered until after a supplemental budget was drafted for another $100m.

• Anonymous

  I fail to see the connection with transgender and computer accounting programs. I have no love loss for DHHS and their poor accounting of taxpayer money, but lets not turn this into a hatefest.

• Anonymous

  I have two brief observations: 1.) If I am “overpaid” for a service then I know it and should pay it back. If not I am keeping money that is not mine, stealing!
  2.) This type of mismanagement of the public’s tax monies causes higher taxes and the “raiding” over others’ monies – teacher pensions!

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OEFDEYGJYWX3MMI4S2QHDC5DXA Thistle

  Leftists simply do not comprehend such clear common sense.

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OEFDEYGJYWX3MMI4S2QHDC5DXA Thistle

  Since you bring up Speaker Nutting’s experience with the system, I assume you want DHHS to demand repayment from these hospitals immediately. It would just be too bad if a few them had to declare bankruptcy as a result, wouldn’t it?

  StillRelaxin, you are a such a Leftist hypocrite you even fail to acknowledge that the Administration is trying to fix this problem with the least disruption possible. Very much unlike the recently extinct Democratic monolith who cared only about crushing one, upstanding Republican Representative who happened, also, to own a pharmacy.

• Anonymous

  HA…. very good… if’s and maybes. The LePage gang has already been over the system while formulating the new budget. Since the gross overpayments started 6 weeks ago I would not lay the blame on old rules since Mayhew had already set up new rules.

• Anonymous

  Stop posting things that make sense….

• Anonymous

  “…hard to focus on your job…”? Are you kidding me? They darn well better focus on their job. Do you think state workers are the only ones who are worried about having their pay cut? Do you think state workers are the only ones who are worried they might lose their job? Wake up and smell the roses! Everyone is worried. Times are tough everywhere! But, that doesn’t mean you get a free pass for not doing your job properly. Give me a break!

• Anonymous

  Exactly! Well said!

• Anonymous

  I didn’t mind when Obama talked about inheriting a big mess when he first got into office, and maybe even after the first 6 months, but after 2 years, he’s STILL saying the same thing, AFTER he has authorized billions of dollars for bailouts and adding that to the deficit. Just when he is going to accept responsibility? Just when does he get the credit for the situation we are in now? Or are you saying that he won’t ever have to take credit for increasing the debt just because he’s a democrat?

• Anonymous

  Hello…anyone home where did I mention “politician” or “Republican”…although I suppose if you put “individual and legislature” together it would become an oxymoron.
  Because legislators can’t just be arrested..I think.

• Anonymous

  Not at all a ‘hate fest’; just the facts!

• Anonymous

  The 66Million is separate from the 10Million a week. It occurred as a result of changes made in September of last year under the prior administration. The 10Million a week is being investigated. They says to me they are on top of the situation. I do not believe the prior administration would have done that. You must be “comprehensive deminimus” and
  pro democratius.

• Tyke

  I have in no way indicated anything like your specious claims. My comment relates to the supplemental budget that Lepage submitted in January. Please do try READING comments before replying. I have not said ONE THING to indicate he or his staff are responsible for the specific errors in billing.

  Please stop making things up!

  Lepage wrote and submitted the supplemental budget that diverted millions away from municipalities and gave millions to the hospitals because they claimed they would have to close if they didn’t get more money.

  Lepage’s adviser on hospital issues is now the Commissioner of DHHS. She had just left her prior job as the head lobbyist for Maine hospitals at the time.

  Either this supposed “expert” on hospitals was easily fooled by their lies and whining or she knew and let them get away with it.

  So is she dishonest or incompetent? Either case is bad news for Maine taxpayers.

• Tyke

  Irony alert!

  A comment based entirely on replying to things I NEVER WROTE – references comprehension.

  Read – understand – comprehend – THEN REPLY.

  … otherwise you just make yourself look really, really foolish.

• Tyke

  I’m a retired businessman and have never done social work or worked for any government.

  Why is it that folks with no answers have to resort to conspiracy theories and name calling?

  Oh yeah – it is because they have no facts and no real rebuttal. That’s why!

• Tyke

  Are you alleging some problems at the CDC which is NOT involved in any of this?

• Tyke

  Calling me names and accusing me of entirely unfounded things is “just the facts”?

  No – that’s pretty much the definition of a pure hate fest.

• Anonymous

  Don’t expect a mea culpa anytime soon.

• Anonymous

  Nice use of bold and underlining Tyke.

  I did read your comment. Why did you choose to focus on the “supplemental budget” when this problem was created by the previous administration? You totally ignored that this problem proceeded Governor LePage’s ascent to office.

  The Governor and his appointees inherited this problem from the previous administration.

  Folks scream that “It’s Bush’s fault” all the time. Well this time, “It’s Baldacci’s fault” and no matter how you spin it that is the truth.

• Anonymous

  great Dept. Right on the ball. Does anyone there know what is going on?

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OEFDEYGJYWX3MMI4S2QHDC5DXA Thistle

  You just aren’t getting it, are you Tyke?

  A lot of people have caught on to your “Hey, look over there, everyone…..look, look, look.”

  It is a poor fisherman who blames the fish for not rising to his fly. You, my fellow traveller, have (since the change in political power) become a stubborn fisherman ignoring which end of the line is most important.

• Jazz11

  I just can’t believe the same businessmen that Governor LePenguin wants to help would over-bill us.

• Anonymous

  Remember, the bank bailouts, which we all wish hadn’t happened, took place during the Bush administration, not Obama’s. And they used emergency measures, with no oversight in place, to hand them out after Congress had rejected them.

  Obama bailed out the states and GM, which has repaid it’s debt and half of the stimulus bill was tax cuts. In the age of talking points, we tend to forget that fact.

• Anonymous

  When hospitals are not paid what is owed for years, it effects YOUR care and costs for that care! It was 66 Million to ALL the hospitals in Maine since September. If you were a businessman and you business was owed millions of dollars you would want it too- get all your facts straight. Don’t blame the hospitals, place the blame where it belongs- poor management and budgeting in DHHS. I will agree with your last statement however.

• Tyke

  I wrote about a closely related event. You seem to think that you can simply declare that is not allowed?

  Wrong

  again

  .. or is that – still!

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C7WSWODNC5J5S2PF7DCW6JOKLQ Rocketman

  The Speaker Of the House Mr. Nutting that was hand picked by lepage should be the first one prosecuted. I suggest turning him into the IRS. There’s a large reward if he is convicted.

• Anonymous

  The bank bailouts never should have happened. But, Obama shouldn’t have bailed out GM, etc., either! You say that GM repaid it’s debt. Actually, the money GM used to “pay it back” did not come from selling cars. Instead, GM repaid the loans with money it withdrew from yet another TARP fund at the Treasury Department. They just failed to tell you that part. TAXPAYER MONEY REPAID THE TAXPAYER-SUPPORTED LOAN. Doesn’t sound right to me!

  As far as your statement that half of the stimulus bill was tax cuts, that’s not true. It has been stated by many that tax cuts made up approximately 1/3 of the stimulus bill, not 1/2. And the $70B AMT fix over the next 10 years that is being counted as part of the stimulus bill tax cuts shouldn’t be counted at all. People don’t plan on spending that money, and by extending the AMT every year, it’s really just maintaining the status quo.

  So, if we’re going to talk facts, let’s talk about the real facts.

• Anonymous

  Never said that it’s not allowed.

  But I am waiting for someone on the left to say something, anything from the previous administration is their fault when it clearly is.

  Are you going to be brave enough to say that the over payments are the fault of the prior administration or are you going to cower and say “everyone but me is wrong?”

• Anonymous

  How about you GSD are you ready to admit that the previous administration is at fault for this situation of paying MILLIONS in overpayment?

  Will you be the brave enough to say that the over payments are the fault of the prior administration?”

• Anonymous

  When you look at Mainecare from an insurance standpoint, how do they get away with it in the first place just handing out large checks occasionally here and there. When Cigna pays my claims, it is one by one – Cigna doesn’t hold out for a few months and then go and pay a lump sum to my doctor’s office, hoping they can figure out where the money goes. So why was Mainecare allowed to do this? But then, as a consumer, with the amount of insurance premiums being paid at our household, you better be straight that all my claims are being paid for. If not, I want to know. So what are hospitals doing to ensure all claims are covered? And I just don’t get it – if Mainecare owes these hospitals and the medical like money, then how could they overpay them? To overpay means you exceeded what claims need payment. According to the medical professionals, they have outstanding claims that Mainecare hasn’t paid. You can’t have it both ways. So which one’s lying?

• Anonymous

  It’s strange that he says they overpay by $66 million and last night when interview on 207 (Ch 6) he said they found an unexpected $60 million bill that hadn’t been paid to the hospitals. ????????

• Anonymous

  Link to interview with LePage

  http://www.wcsh6.com/life/programming/local/207/story.aspx?storyid=151010&catid=50

• Anonymous

  Link to interview with LePage

  http://www.wcsh6.com/life/programming/local/207/story.aspx?storyid=151010&catid=50

• Anonymous

  Yeah I need to go to the hospital, feel down and scratched my thumb, need a band aid that probably cost 88 bucks, oh my head hurts too, get a couple aspirin , another 70 bucks at the hospital, the hospitals themselves seem to be a big root of the problem, fix them, and throw half the gov’t out of office, would be alot better off state

• Anonymous

  The headline says “Maine discovers millions in Medicaid overpayments”

  Shouldn’t it be “LePage begins to sort out economic mess left by Baldacci administration”

• Tyke

  It is obvious that the over-payments are the fault of the previous administration. Why on earth would you need me to tell you this?

  I have criticized both Democrats and Republcians in the past and will continue to do so. In this instance I did not feel a need to pile on since you and the rest of the Lepage brigade are more than adequately commenting on it.

  I made a comment that adds to the discussion because it brings up another related point.

  Why does something so very simple so confuse Lepage supporters so?

• Anonymous

  Coming back to reality for a moment, let’s talk about medical fraud. It is a huge and ongoing problem. The perpetrators of the fraud are health care providers, including doctors, pharmacists and home health care agencies.

  Quoting:

  —————–
  IN 1965, the Medicaid and Medicare programs were created in order to provide structured government mechanisms that would provide healthcare to the poor and elderly. Medicaid exists at the state level to provide healthcare to those who are unable to afford it …

  When first created, there were no provisions for guarding against abusive activities, primarily because no one thought providers would defraud the healthcare systems. About 10 years after the programs developed, policy makers and legislators realized that the systems were being defrauded on a routine basis…

  Estimates suggest that 10 to 40 percent of the healthcare budget may be lost to fraudulent activities each year. In dollar terms, this means that billions are lost annually to criminal actions by fraudulent providers.

  http://pagerankstudio.com/Blog/2011/01/medicaid-and-medicare-fraud-information-and-facts/

  ———————————–

  The perpetrators are private industry health providers. So why are you, and everyone else, attacking only the government?

  It’s greedy unethical business practice that’s the problem.

• Anonymous

  Because the only ones that are blaming the past administration are those that see the issues for what they are.

  I am proud to say that I voted for the guy that came in second to Governor LePage. Shocks you doesn’t it.

• Anonymous

  What’s up Doc? Word on the street is your a filthy crook?
  You better get back in your nest SpruceDweller.

• Anonymous

  Now you’re talking turkey. That’s how most tax payers really feel. Layers upon layers of bureaucracy, too many agencies and too many programs, all leading to too much inefficiency. The bottom line……big government and big taxes.

  It’s 100 times worse at the Federal level!

• Anonymous

  Hospitals were so far underwater because the State wasn’t paying its bills, they probably kept the cash, hoping the mistake would go unnoticed.

• Anonymous

  The auto bail out started under bush in 2008.
  A link that you will like and recognize:http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008/12/19/transcript-president-bush-auto-industry-bailout/

• Anonymous

  I didn’t like what Bush did. And I didn’t like that Obama took that and ran with it with a flourish! Since we’re sharing links, here’s one for you. http://www.openmarket.org/2009/05/30/wasteful-obama-auto-bailouts-disturb-even-liberal-washington-post/

• Anonymous

  But, but, but Speaker Nutting has been quoted as saying the previous administration’s failure to catch the over-payments was “unconscionable.” That’s a good one, a quote for the ages. The speaker knows what “unconscionable” means? No matter; we get what we pay for.

• Anonymous

  Thanks for asking, JD. My answer would be no, because last I heard the hospitals hadn’t been receiving any payments at all.

• Anonymous

  If Maine is over paying then why are all the hospitals crying poverty, saying the state is not paying them what they owe?

• Anonymous

  That is such a load of crap, someone is being paid to do the books!!!!!!

• Anonymous

  What did those incompetent idiots do before they left office?

• Dilli Gaf

  TARP is on Bush, Cash 4 Clunkers and stimulus is on Obama….auto bail out was under stimulus

• Anonymous

  And the paid trolls (shills) just keep on trolling–

  Do any of you live on this planet?
  Don’t believe everything you think!!

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ZHX45U2CXGSVSENJWFP5DMZWLI Jason

  Amen Well Said a state employee I agree with. It’s time not only to cut the state budget big time but we need to impose TABOR on all levels of Government (State, County, Local, School Districts). It’s time for Government at the County, Local and School District levels to start consolidating departments and services. We have some counties can’t afford to keep services like jails, sheriff patrols going. We at our local cities and towns can consolidate police, fire, ambulance and public works services with other communites. The school systems need to consolidate all departments and services including sports because all of these school services are expensive and becoming unaffordable. We need to get our fiscal house in order this would help get property taxes down and help get more businesses into our state which we desperately need.

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ZHX45U2CXGSVSENJWFP5DMZWLI Jason

  The state employees and the unions are the problems they feel that they are entitled to everything. They employees went on the news and want to impose all sorts of massive tax increases on Maine people , businesses and new taxes on Hollywood Slots and incoming casinos to keep their gravy train going. It’s time to send a message to these folks they have had control on our state and they don’t want to give up anything to get the state on track its time for some of these folks to get pink slipped.

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ZHX45U2CXGSVSENJWFP5DMZWLI Jason

  They imposed the changes that went into effect before Baldacci left he is to blame for all of the DHHS mess because most of it was under his watch. The King and Baldacci era’s are two era’s I think the majority of Mainers who aren’t Liberals we would like to forget that time period because we want to move into a better situation.

• Anonymous

  The attempt in Augusta to discredit all government by teabags and republicans is gaining steam. One of the funnier things you see in this comment section is their rant about the superiority of private business in solving problems. They blather on and on about how private companies would never allow such wretched services as the State, and at such horrific costs to the taxpayer. In their enthusiasm to discredit public servants(by the way thank you for your service to all military and non-military public servants all) the enthusiast for smaller government forget about, companies that can’t deliver an accurate bill, or recognize who you are after doing business with you for 40 years, and little surprises like tainted dog and baby food: tried getting services for your new electronic gizmo, from the wizards of private enterprise? Or an operator who speaks English? What nonsense, private businesses especially big ones, are inefficient, expensive, unresponsive and all this crap about how much better they are at running things is a lot of hot air.

  Not true you say, lets hear your excuse for the barons of profit the next time you open your bills, and find your neighbors new grill billed in your name, for something you never, bought and for which you are now being charged interest because you haven’t paid your bill.

• Anonymous

  Hard to focus on your job because your scared of taking a cut in pay. For the past three years I’ve seen 17 staff in my building first be cut to 12 then those 12 went from 40 hours a week to 32 as considered “fulltime”. These people work indirectly for the state, there’s two layers of admistration (state workers) over them…did they see a cut in the past three years — NO– Oh wait furlow days — days you didn’t have to work, attached to holiday weekends, rough! get a life if you think I’d even consider thinking its not your turn, about time the cuts started not at the bottom where the starting pay is 8.15 an hour and actually hit the people a little higher up.

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_IJODGKQUVVXXZASWJKGOTGXEIU Derek

  This whole thing can be avoided by eliminating MaineCare.

• Anonymous

  You have misdirected anger, my friend. You have seen your fellow workers let go. You have seen your hours cut. But you still get the workload, don’t you? Why blame state workers? You and your co-workers are doing work that should have been performed by state workers. Instead, greedy politicians and their greedy corporate bosses outsourced those jobs. How’d that work out for you? More work, less pay, and no security.

  Don’t get mad at union workers because we fight for our rights. Recognize who the real enemy is here. The politicians and the moneyed interests who control them. Why should your co-workers suffer so some rich guy can save a few bucks in taxes and winter in Florida?

  Organize and join us. Together we can fight for what’s rightfully ours.