Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) vetoed L.D. 272 on Thursday, a bill that would prohibit Mainers under the age of 18 from using indoor tanning salons in an effort to protect youth from skin cancer risk. In his veto message, the governor ridiculed the measure as “government run amok” that “tells parents that Augusta knows better than they do when it comes to their children.”

To explain his veto decision, LePage claimed that the bill would do nothing to “stop teenagers from lying in the sun or spending hours in privately owned tanning beds” in their homes. But arguing that a public health and safety initiative banning indoor tanning is toothless just because it doesn’t prevent private use is akin saying that tobacco and alcohol restrictions also serve no purpose, since kids can just sneak into personal stashes at home. And the kids who soak up natural rays from the sun are much less at risk for skin cancer than the kids who are exposed to the the highly concentrated UV rays in tanning beds, according to a 2010 American Association for Cancer Research study.

In fact, there is zero doubt in the scientific and medical communities that the use of tanning beds increases the risk for melanoma by exposing users to unhealthy levels of UV radiation. The Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) website has an entire section dedicated to debunking myths about indoor tanning safety, noting that tanning bed use is “particularly dangerous for younger users” as “people who begin tanning younger than age 35 have a 75% higher risk of melanoma.” Nevertheless, tanning salons often outright ignore U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) safety recommendations governing minors’ use of commercial tanning beds. A 2009 National Cancer Institute (NCI) investigative study found that less than 11 percent of tanning facilities followed FDA’s safety schedule limiting young people’s use of the beds to three times a week at most, and the vast majority would allow teens to use their facilities all seven days for the first week.

Back in 2006, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) concluded that “policymakers should consider enacting measures, such as prohibiting minors and discouraging young adults from using indoor tanning facilities, to protect the general population from possible additional risk for melanoma.” It should consequently come as no surprise that L.D. 272′s strongest proponents are doctors in Maine’s legislature. Sen. Geoffrey Gratwick (D), a physician, said of LePage’s veto, “There are times when science and medicine should supersede politics. This is one of those times.”

Vermont and California already have laws similar to L.D. 272 on the books, and just last week, Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) signed a bill banning minors under age 17 form using commercial tanning beds and children under age 14 from using spray tans in his state. Christie asserted that the bill was “important for protecting the safety of minors” in New Jersey.

In a sign of the GOP’s weakening knee-jerk opposition to Obamacare, Maine Governor Paul LePage may be the latest Republican who agrees to cooperate with health reform to extend coverage to 55,000 of his state’s uninsured residents. On Monday, LePage signaled for the first time he may expand Medicaid under the health care law.

According to the Portland Press Herald:

LePage signaled Monday that he’s open to participating in the federal health care law’s Medicaid expansion program, but will seek the “best deal for Mainers.” [...] Adrienne Bennett, LePage’s spokeswoman, said Monday that the administration will initiate discussions with the federal government over a Medicaid expansion. She said the governor will seek assurances that Maine is “getting a return on investment.”

Remember, LePage is the same vocal Obamacare critic who blasted the health law just a few months ago, saying, “Maine will not be complicit in the degradation of our nation’s premier health care system.” And the governor has historically favored contracting, not expanding, Maine’s Medicaid program. Thousands of Maine residents already lost their health coverage earlier this month because LePage dropped nearly 15,000 low-income residents from the Medicaid rolls — and he would have kicked more than twice that number off of the program if the Obama Administration hadn’t stopped him.

If LePage agrees to extend Medicaid coverage, he would join a surprising coalition of GOP governors in states like Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada.

GOP governors across the country are so resistant to implementing Obamacare, they’re unwilling to expand their Medicaid programs under the health reform law at the expense of the low-income residents in their states. And Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) actually wants to go even further — not only does he oppose expanding Medicaid to extend health care to additional poor Mainers, but he’s also seeking to contract the program to drop 37,000 low-income people who currently have Medicaid coverage.

But the Obama administration will prevent LePage from carrying out that plan. Federal officials rejected the governor’s proposal to drop coverage for nearly 15,000 parents with incomes that fall between the federal poverty level ($23,050 for a family of four) and 133 percent of the poverty level ($30,657 for a family of four), as well as an additional 6,000 19- and 20-year-olds whose incomes put them in that gap. Obamacare seeks to establish a new eligibility level for Medicaid at 133 percent of the poverty level, which will help eliminate the coverage gap that often prevents America’s working poor from being able to afford the health services they need.

Luckily for LePage and unluckily for Maine’s low-income residents, the governor will still be able to satisfy his desire to scale back his state’s Medicaid rolls to some extent. Maine used to extend coverage to low-income people whose incomes exceeded 133 percent of the poverty level, and the federal government acknowledged that Obamacare can’t stop LePage from dropping Maine’s Medicaid eligibility level down to that 133 percent threshold — a move that will purge about 20,000 Mainers from the Medicaid rolls at the beginning of March.

LePage has been open about his distaste for President Obama’s landmark health reform law, which seeks to ensure that over 30 million previously uninsured Americans have access to health care by 2014. Following Obama’s reelection, the governor asserted he wouldn’t “lift a finger” to meet impending deadlines to implement the Affordable Care Act because he believes the law represents “the degradation of our nation’s premier health care system.” The thousands of Maine residents set to lose their access to Medicaid coverage on March 1, however, may not share the same esteem for the United States’ current health care system.

During the Republican Governors Association conference last night, Maine’s Gov. Paul LePage (R) told reporters he’s “not lifting a finger” to institute a health insurance exchange for his state. In his official letter to the federal government, LePage explains that’s because he doesn’t want Maine to be “complicit in the degradation of our nation’s premier health care system.”

Maine was well on its way to implementing Obamacare before the 2010 election cycle gave the GOP control over the state legislature and governor’s office. But LePage has now confirmed that Maine will join the other Republican-controlled states that continue to resist Obamacare — even in the wake of the Supreme Court upholding the law and President Obama’s recent reelection:

On Wednesday, Gov. LePage signed the letter along with 20 other Republican governors that was sent to the Obama administration requesting more time and guidance.

On Thursday, however, LePage sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius saying the state would not create a state-run exchange and saying the health reform law “is a stepping stone to a single-payer system. Maine will not be complicit in the degradation of our nation’s premier health care system.”

Yesterday, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius extended the deadline for states to inform HHS whether they intend to establish their own statewide exchange, in an attempt to offer the 20 Republican governors the time they requested. If states like Maine choose not to set up an exchange, the federal government will step in and do it for them. And the Portland Press Herald reports that Maine lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are now bemoaning the wasted opportunity to build an insurance marketplace that specifically fits Maine’s needs, since LePage’s refusal to implement an exchange ensures that those decisions will now simply be turned over to the federal government.

As opposed to LePage’s assertion that health care reform would “degrade” what is already a “premier health care system,” six out seven doctors agree that the United States’ current health system isn’t working, largely because of the country’s high rates of uninsurance. Setting up state exchanges and expanding state-run Medicaid programs under Obamacare would help work toward expanding health insurance to the Americans who are currently uninsured.

At a speech in Vermont today, Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) attempted to walk back his earlier comment calling the IRS “the new Gestapo.” He failed.

“What I am trying to say is the Holocaust was a horrific crime against humanity and, frankly, I would never want to see that repeated,” LePage said to Paul Heintz, a reporter from Burlington’s Seven Days at a fundraiser in Vermont. “Maybe the IRS is not quite as bad — yet.”

On Saturday, LePage said in his weekly radio address, “You must buy health insurance or pay the new Gestapo – the IRS.” After outcry from Jewish groups including the Anti-Defamation League, the governor released a statement partially backtracking his comments. On Wednesday, the head of the union representing IRS employees also demanded an apology for the insensitive remark, saying his rhetoric put federal employees in danger. But

LePage doubled down when confronted, even when Heintz pressed him:

HEINTZ: Do you have a sense of what the Gestapo actually did during World War II?

LEPAGE: Yeah. They killed a lot of people.

HEINTZ: So the IRS is headed in that direction? They’re headed in the direction of killing a lot of people?

LEPAGE: Yeah.

HEINTZ: Wait, are you serious?

Listen:

In his weekly radio address, Maine Governor Paul LePage compared the Internal Revenue Service to the Gestapo, “Nazi Germany’s official secret police under Adolph Hitler, who imprisoned and murdered thousands of people without cause.”

This was not an offhand remark. Rather, LePage included the comparison in his weekly radio address. The Portland Press Herald has the story:

The IRS description was a reference to a provision in the Affordable Care Act that requires most Americans to buy health insurance or pay an annual penalty when filing their tax returns. The provision, known more broadly as the individual mandate, was the subject of a multi-state lawsuit, but was recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

LePage said the court decision has “made America less free.”

“We the people have been told there is no choice,” he said. “You must buy health insurance or pay the new Gestapo – the IRS.”

During his 2010 campaign, LePage promised voters they’d see headlines saying “Governor Lepage tells Obama to go to hell!” In May, LePage said his message to his state’s unemployed is “get off the couch and get a job.”

Gov. Paul LePage (R-ME) has appointed a nine-member committee to advise the state on how to develop Maine’s health insurance exchange, the Maine Public Broadcasting Network is reporting. But, “nearly all of the committee members have professional ties to the health care industry,” and LePage specifically excluded consumer advocates from the board:

Earlier this year, the health care advocacy group known as Consumers for Affordable Health Care approached members of Gov. Paul LePage’s staff about being included on a nine-member advisory panel that will make recommendations to the Legislature for the establishment of Maine’s Health Insurance Exchange.

“They were very cordial, and I want to be very clear–they were very up-front and they let us know in advance before the appointments were made public that there was not a slot available for us to fill,” says Mitchell Stein of Consumers for Affordable Health Care. “They listened, but, unfortunately, their answer was no.”

Stein says his agency had hoped there would be at least one consumer member on the committee to represent the health care concerns of average Mainers as the state prepares to meet a 2014 deadline for getting the exchanges up and running….The committee is chaired by former House Republican Leader Joe Bruno, who operates a chain of Maine pharmacies, and consists almost exclusively of health insurance and business lobbyists and executives in the health care industry.

LePage’s tilt towards industry is not surprising. Since taking office, LePage has repeatedly attempted to cut the state’s Medicaid program by reducing eligibility to the level in place in most states, thereby throwing off some 30,000 Mainers off the rolls. Under his new “market based” health law, those beneficiaries would have to go out and purchase coverage from private insurers.