In Plain Sight

Health care advocates say proposed cuts to Medicaid could endanger Maine hospitals that are already struggling to operate.

Mainspring, a new social service collective in Kittery, has a growing clientele. With federal cuts looming, advocates are sounding the alarm.

More than 64,000 Mainers have health insurance through the Affordable Care Act's online marketplace. But state officials and health care advocates say that many would lose coverage under proposed changes in the Congressional budget bill.

More than 38,000 adult Mainers with disabilities are enrolled in MaineCare, the state version of Medicaid. Advocates say the future of programs that help people with disabilities live in the community is at risk if Congress slashes hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid as proposed under the pending budget bill.

MaineHousing has awarded $13.4 million in state subsidies for the construction of 129 new affordable rental units in Portland and Lewiston. But they warn these projects could be the last of their kind for some time.

A group of residents at a mobile home park in Gorham are trying to become the latest cooperative to successfully purchase their community in the face of an offer from an out-of-state investment firm. Their situation has prompted calls for more protections intended to help mobile home park residents more easily buy their own communities.

The ALICE, or Asset-Limited, Income Constrained, Employed, threshold measures the average income that a household needs to afford basic expenses such as housing, food, health care, transportation and child care.

Maine farmers, food banks and rural economies could be harmed by a 20-30% cut to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program known as SNAP under a bill being considered by Congress.

Maine officials said it's business as usual for the remaining weeks of the home heating season, but it's unclear whether staffing cuts at the federal office that administers the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program mean that its future is in jeopardy.

More than a dozen child care centers across the state closed for at least part of the day Tuesday so educators and families could protest proposed cuts to childcare stipends.