Jonathan Bush likens MaineCare expansion to Putin bombing schools

In 2017, nearly 60% of Mainers voted to expand the state’s Medicaid program, helping more than 130,000 people access affordable health care. Last week, Jonathan Bush compared that decision to Russian President Vladimir Putin killing schoolchildren.

Bush is competing in the Republican primary for Maine governor. He is the cousin of former President George W. Bush and the older brother of TV presenter Billy Bush.

Bush made the remark in an April 20 radio interview with WGAN while arguing that Democrats were using Medicaid expansion to stifle the free market and push for “socialized medicine.”

“By suffocating the free market that would hold prices down, by chasing the free market out of business, they’re creating the need,” Bush said. “It’s like Putin bombing the school and then coming in and declaring martial law.”

It’s not entirely clear what Bush is referring to. The United Nations and Amnesty International report that Russian forces have targeted schools and kindergartens as part of their ongoing invasion of Ukraine. In May 2022, Russia bombed a school building in Bilohorivka where civilians were seeking shelter. Around the same time, Putin declared martial law in portions of Ukraine that Russia had annexed.

Maine’s Medicaid program, which is known as MaineCare, was expanded under the Affordable Care Act, which allows states to extend coverage to most adults earning incomes up to 138% of the Federal Poverty Level (about $22,000 annually).

Republican Gov. Paul LePage, who served from 2011 to 2019, refused to expand MaineCare even after the referendum passed. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills completed the expansion after she was elected in 2018.

This is not the only time Bush has targeted MaineCare. In March, Bush told WLOB radio that he wants to use artificial intelligence to kick people out of the program.

“I’m a big efficiency technology guy,” Bush said. “I don’t want someone to literally have state bureaucrats read process paperwork. But you could have an AI agent go through everybody’s circumstances and say, ‘These don’t meet the criteria. You’ve got 30 days to go onto the exchange and buy something.”

Maine Democratic Party Executive Director Devon Murphy-Anderson said, “Bush thinks health care is something you can hand off to a robot and cut people loose when it spits out the wrong answer.”

At an October 2025 candidate forum, Bush said expanding Medicaid was a “crazy and terrible idea” before adding “we’ve got to roll people back.”

Nearly 400,000 Mainers rely on MaineCare for health insurance.

Health care affordability is expected to be a major issue in the 2026 elections. A February 2026 survey from Consumers for Affordable Health Care found that nearly half of Mainers have taken on medical debt in the last two years.

The primary election for Maine governor is scheduled for June 9.