What we should find interesting is:

# 1 'THE' reason why [any] health care cost is so expensive is that lawyers have been allowed to bring medical related suits for even the most trivial instances----i.e. M.D. liability Ins./ 'looping'--second/third testing to protect M.D.'s/ and----

# 2 We all know that.

# 3 'NOBODY' will bring that up/address this issue.

---:as my grandfather always said 'follow the money'

''We don't need a revolution, just kill all the lawyers''

*William Shakespeare

Nice going, Dems!

and these boobs running out state and country (DEMOCRATES) think and believe universal health care is a good thing. dopes!!

Actually Cee, Maine is one of the harder states to bring a successful medical malpractice lawsuit in. Malpractice insurers are also far less likely to award out of court settlements because they know that most lawyers are reluctant to take these cases to court unless the malpractice is blatant and has plenty of evidence, along with other doctors willing to testify to that fact. With very few exceptions, if it is awarded in Maine, it is probably deserved.

'justmehere' --Thank you.

---: did not know that.

Makes sense that the Republicans are upset about spending money on the aged, low income and the poor, but not a peep about spending 37 million dollars to fix 24 miles of road on I 295.

Thank you justmehere - CeeBlue's response is one of the most ignorant I have read lately, completely baseless and without any evidence. Medical costs continue to rise at an exponential rate due to mainly one thing - greed. Medical insurance companies and R&D companies have been recording record profits not different than the oil companies lately and lest everyone forget - those companies are responsible to thousands of shareholders who expect and demand as much profit as possible - typically on the backs of hardworking people. I am just glad that this State is finding out a way to back back the millions of dollars they owe our hospitals. Due to that debt - many hospitals have had to lay off employees - who in turn will utilize MaineCare. What a vicious cycle the State's debt has participated in.

Baldacci's Mainecare isn't paying ambulance services either. Guess who gets to suck up the costs. LET'S GET MORE PEOPLE ON WELFARE GOV!

So what are they doing with the nine hundred million that Snow and Collins voted for

Baldacci of course has a political interest in minimizing the MaineCare debt, he would like to be known as the governor who left the state (at least on paper) with a balanced budget so that he can use that slogan when he runs for Olympia's seat in the Senate. When Jock's company went public a couple of years ago, old Jock and Oly made a cool 25 or so million dollars that they didn't, I'm sure, invest in a 401K.

But I digress..

Baldacci's estimate of the shortfall lacks the payments to many, many healthcare providers who have been using lines of credit and their own capital to make payroll for many months, sometimes years, as payments from MaineCare have lagged or stopped altogether. The blame, according to Baldacci's office, sits squarely on a $60, 000.000 (yes, 60 million) dollar computer system that is to be scrapped because it never worked and never will. Only Baldacci and BMS know how much and to whom they owe late payments for services rendered. Several companies have gone out of business leaving the mentally ill and physically disabled scrambling for providers who have become scarcer and more far flung. Healthier Mental Health and health care institutions have had to scrap marginal programs in order to keep their core services intact. Draconian Rate Setting has begun that will further restrict much needed services, especially to children's programs, and as far as adult services, ask the Administrators of all of our County Jails the percentage of mentally ill that they house, and the percentage of increase of these individuals during Baldacci's Pogrom against mental health and healthcare services.

Meanwhile, on page six of most newspapers was the story of how yet again, the state has been found non-compliant with the terms of the AMHI Consent Decree, falling far short of expectations and results. Baldacci has always been good at deflecting blame and playing 3 card monte with MaineCare dollars, blaming the Providers who operate on margin, for being too greedy with MaineCare dollars. Mama Baldacci would be smacking John upside the head with a ladle for his blatant disingenuous behavior.

I would really like the State to examine who they are allowing on MaineCare. Currently, every Tom, Dick and Harry that crosses the borders into our State, show up at an Emergency Room with their list of medications and BINGO, they are on Maine Care. I am all for this program designated to help people in times of crisis but with limited healthcare dollars, lets allot that money for residents of the State, not the drifters.

I agree with cheeta. I'm a nurse, and a patient I had a few weeks ago told me s/he had moved to Maine because of the free healthcare.

The Mainecare Brain Injury Dayhab program reimburses providers $63,000 per client, per year for a 22 hour week. Many of the same clients have been attending for upwards of 15 years now. Clients are in groups of 4 with someone with NO special training, making $10 an hour, while Mainecare reimburses the provider $55 an hour, per client. Providers are reimbursed millions of dollars a year for the world's most expensive adult daycare - that NEVER ENDS! Clients go out to eat, go to the movies, play bingo, watch tv, and take naps. Does your insurance pay you for any kind of therapy that lasts forever? No, but Mainecare does!

At least most will get use out of that 24 miles of highway.

Time that your poor and welfare crowd get drug testing to pick up their monthley check, and if they are not missing their IQ, a limb or an eye. They get it for 6 months then find a job or starve. You either str=art becomming a productive part of society or you go hungry.

Problem is Democrats want to save everyone from themselves and I can tell you, You have nothing I need. From the ones I see on TV......most of you could use a good dose of common sense.

$65 million dollars!!!!!!!!!!!! BaldNazi is at it again......Robbing Peter to pay Paul.

BobByn if that is true what you are saying that is just wrong on so many levels. But that is Baldacci. wait and hide the truth remeber he is also a lawyer.

TAP THE AUTO INSURES. THEY ARE RUNNING AWAY WITH A PILE OF OUR MONEY. I BET THEIR PROFITS ALONE FROM THE STATE OF MAINE WOULD PAY FOR EVERYONES MEDICIAL BILLS. THE STATE PASSED LAWS SUBJECTING US TO THEIR ROBBERY NOW LET THE STATE CAPITLIZE ON IT. IT IS POSIBALE FOR YOU TO GO TO JAIL IF YOU DON'T PAY YOUR CAR INSURANCE.. TO BAD EVERY BUSINESS DIDN'T HAVE THAT OPTION..

can anyone imagine a political figure hiding the truth ?

Its time to impeach the whole maine state government and start over before this whole state is on welfare. seems like were about halfway there now. and whats up with the uprise i handicapp tags lately?

It seems to me that with the onslaught of lawsuits these days and the fact that most folks cant tolerate a simple ake or pain that the doctors probably just get sick of the whineing and crying and just hand out a handicapp tag. Im sure that there is a lot of folks that are handicapp and are in need of these tags but I have seen folks clime out of vehicles with handicapp tags and they sure do look fine to me. How much is this out of control situation causing Maine taxpayers?

Memo to Hospitals:

You know how we said we were going to use stimulus money to payoff the hundreds of millions of dollars we owe you from 2005 and 2006 - just kidding. By the way, do not expect to get paid anytime soon because we have no idea how to pay for all the people we have on MaineCare.

Yours truely,

Gov Baldi.

Bangor should be proud of her native son.

'evasmith' : is yours an attack on capitalism or a plea for more Gov. takeover.

That you refute the [ever increasing] cost of Med. liability Ins. or the required 'looping' [duplicate M.D. testing] to protect against tort interference---would beg the question : What law firm do you clerk for.

What is wrong with the statement; 'let's not forget they're paying shareholder' --- as a bad thing!! Do you need a ticket Cuba comrad.

Have any of you ever seen what it costs for a doctor to obtain malpractice insurance? Doubt it. And not all lawyers (attorneys) are the bad guys. Just wait until YOU need one to defend you in some legal action. you'll be looking for the best one you can find. Stop trying to make everyone else be the "bad guy". We get the kind of government we ask for/allow. When was the last time any of you attended a local government meeting and stayed through to the end (city/county counsel or selectmen's meeting)? When was the last time you wrote a letter to your elected representative and expressed your position/ire on any issue? If all you do is rant and rave here on this meaningless blog you're less to be considered than a mosquito in the spring.

"Finance Commissioner Ryan Low told members of two legislative committees on Friday that, as expected, the recession is driving up utilization of MaineCare services." Only part of the problem, because good people need the program now......how about the fraud in MaineCare and the lack of the Department on doing anything abouut it?? How many millions in fraud is going on from lazy people who falsely fill out the form to get Mainecare? Get on the fraud, so people who turely need it can get it. And come on people who didn't know of this shortfall, we are talking about the State of Maine!

Hate to break it to you Baldacci haters this all started under Angus King. The King administration left the Baldacci administraion a million+ dollar medicare bill So start the blame with Anus King

Thank you too, Anus.

Are the books being padded now that there is money on its way???? Lets watch all the other departments now and see how soon they have shortfalls. Amazing!!!!

What Maine life should be to give out welfare as much as they can especially to out of staters who move here because Maine is one of the states that hands out the most welfare in the country. Wake up Augusta and don't give out welfare to out of staters who move here for the first 6 months that they are in the state and that should slow them down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't want to burst anybodies bubble here, but consider the past record of Maine, MaineCare, medical costs, and insurance costs. It has been an issue year after year after year. You have made it abundantly clear to your legislators that you have had enough. They ,in turn, have fed you the same lies and deceptionyear after year, election season after election season. Do you not see a pattern here? . You re-elect the same misfits that made a 'promise' to you four years ago. They did nothing then;they will do nothng now---or next year. Wake up, my friends. Smell the coffee. There has to be another reason why your problems and concerns are being ignored, and why the condition of your bank account or your ability to afford health insurance in Maine means little to them. Until you finally accept that, and until you stop re-electing the same gangsters nothing will change. Do not complain about what you can change but will not. From North Carolina------

It's George Bush's fault.

why is this clown in office instead of a circus. what an ass!

Mainecare needs to stop paying for Methadone. i'd like to know how many million dollars get spent on these money racket clinics.

okay.....First of all, Hospitals have some of the most blood thirsty lawyers themselves, and it is true that it is NOT easy to sue a Dr or Hospital, Even if you have a good case and the person deserves to be compensated. I know this for a fact because I took my daughter to EMMC for an out patient surgery and her intestines were punctured not once but twice, brought her home as they pretty much shoved us out the door. For the next 2 days I called the out patient surgery center to tell them of her worrying symptoms and pain and they sent me to the store for gas medicine and suppositories never once saying you should bring her in seeings how she is post abdominal surgery patient. The third day, I think it was the third day, have trouble remembering because it turned out to be a very traumatic experience, anyway, My daughter hadn't eaten or drank anything for 2 days and she was gray in color and cold and clammy to the touch, she was also lethargic and not talking , which if you knew my daughter that was extremely unusual. All these symptoms are medical 101 for septic shock and severe sepsis. I took her to the emergency dept and we were kindly escorted to a room at around 6pm well as the hours went by she became worse , her vitals kept bottoming out and setting alarms off on the equipment, they would come in and shut them off and leave again. About the 4th time this happened I grabbed her nurse and told her to do something now because my daughter is dying before my eyes she said she had told the Dr before to come in a look at her but he didn't feel it warranted. We had only seen the Dr once maybe twice after we first got there and this was now 12 hours later mind you. So I assured the nurse that if something didn't happen soon that I was going out to the Drs station and make our presence known in a big way. Well! By gosh a Dr appeared very shortly after and took a look at her and said get her to Cat Scan, not long after A trauma surgeon approached me and said I needed to sign a consent that they needed to get her in surgery NOW. In fact they were in such a hurry they were tripping over her IV lines and oxygen hoses trying to prep her for OR. This was the first a NUMBER of mistakes that happened during her care, she made it through the surgery but then they didn't monitor her oxygen levels and the sepsis had effected her lung function so now her lungs were shutting down a few days after after she had finally gotten out of ICU. Back to ICU and she had to be put on life support. The Dr himself told me that he was sorry, that THEY had indeed "dropped the ball" a COUPLE of times in her care . The Dr Hughes we will call her, that Originally caused the damage, she was in a hurry to catch a Christmas holiday flight out that day of the first surgery and she didn't pay attention to me days before when I was concerned about her doing laproscopic through an existing scar where my daughter had a previous Op to remove adhesions from her organs and intestines that were attached to her insides and wall of tummy, in fact she was rude to me when i wasted her time with such worries. She had 2 surgeries that morning the first one was very late because we ended up waiting about an hour and a half after our surgery time was suppose to be , and this is funny, my daughter remembers seeing a suitcase outside the operation room door and the nurse told her that the Dr was catching a flight that morning and put it there because she was running late...............Needless to say she caught her flight and my daughter caught severe sepsis and lung shut down with permanent scaring everywhere. In fact she has had to have a complete hysterectomy in Boston since then and the 30 yr Specialist at Brigham and Womens shook his head and said he couldn't believe the mess inside her tummy and offered to write a letter on her behalf to the lawyers if we wanted. She still has some medical issues because of this blunder. Needless to say she has never been compensated for ANYTHING, nor has she ever heard an apology from anyone, if this were your daughter, oh my daughter had to forgo graduating with her class and go back to high school the following year because she was to sick and weak to finish her year out on top of all else. If this was your daughter, and you had not only been witness to but also told by a Boston Dr that she had been very poorly managed health wise would you not think that your child should be compensated for such blatant acts of poor care??? Now I realize truly realize how very one sided the laws are and how Dr's and Hospitals will do anything to cover each others mishaps and how the lawyers seal the envelope for them, how about you?? Not all med negligent cases that are filed are bogus but they might as well be!!!! They don't care what they leave in their wake , how damaged they can leave a person or family, someone should do SOMETHING about this!

Oh and our insurance at the time was a private one , very good one through my work, so they all got their money!

I'm ashamed of our state government, Baldacci reminds me of my ex-wife, Lie, cheat and hid the phone bill, and those were the positives.

Quote "Members of Maine’s GOP were livid Friday that they hadn’t heard about the additional shortfall earlier."

What? Do we need a brick to land on our heads to realize that? Mainecare still owes providers from 2004. Assuming that they did in fact NOT hear about it earlier (something I highly doubt) considering the fact that job losses are happening daily, thus qualifying many more people for Mainecare, exactly how can anyone (GOP or Democrat) rant about that? Unreal. Common sense is dead.

Thirty-two years ago, legislation was passed which created medical screening panels. From a 1997 Maine Supreme Court case: BRAND v. SEIDER, paragraph 8 of the decision reveals that Maine legislators created these panels because they thought doctors would leave the state because of the rise in insurance premiums for medical malpractice liability. Everyone put the blame on meritless lawsuits, though it was a combination of factors which created the national crisis. From paragraph 9 of the decision:

[¶9] In our jurisprudence concerning the Health Security Act, we must recognize that the Act limits the liability of health care providers in derogation of the legal rights of potential plaintiffs.

Derogation means "the taking away." Medical Mutual Insurance Company insures most doctors in Maine. The company is physician-owned! Try finding a lawyer to take a case... you can't. If they have one doctor client, they won't do it because that doctor is like a shareholder in Med Mutual, who they'll have to go up against. They don't like to tell you that this is the reason for the conflict, but it is. Our case was ruled on without a trial... summary judgment was granted to defendants. Judges are so abusing that. We need J.A.I.L. (Judicial Accountability Initiative Law).

www.dirtydecisions.com