A coalition of Maine health and community groups is urging Maine’s U.S. senators to restore supplemental Medicaid funding to help the elderly and disabled.

The Disability Rights Center, staff at the Barron Center and others are officially unveilng a new ad campaign urging immediate passage of the Senate jobs bill that would restore Medicaid Federal Medical Assistance Percentage funding that had been allocated to states through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The House of Representatives passed the bill last month without restoring the Medicaid funding.

Failing to restore the funding will result in cuts to vital medical programs and other health services, according to the advocacy groups. Maine would lose 3,441 jobs and wind up with an $85 million budget gap that would affect services to the elderly, disabled and mentally ill communities, they said.

The group ran its first full page ad in the Portland Press Herald today, and is holding a news conference this afternoon to officially unveil the campaign. The ad, an open letter to Snowe and Collins, asks the senators to support the jobs bill with restored Medicaid funding.