WATERVILLE, Maine — How to devote more of the state’s resources to elder care, ending abuse of senior citizens and the pros and cons of the new health care reform law were among the issues faced by Maine’s five gubernatorial candidates Tuesday during a forum in Waterville.
The candidates, whose responses were limited to two minutes in a tightly scripted issues forum sponsored by the Maine Association of Agencies on Area Aging, agreed that taking care of senior citizens should rank among the state’s top priorities. How to do that depended on the candidate, although they all acknowledged to some degree that the solutions to even the most basic issues, such as ensuring that senior citizens can stay out of retirement homes for as long as possible, won’t be easily attained.
“I think this is one of the most complex issues we have to face,” said independent Shawn Moody, a businessman from Gorham, in his response to the first question. “I would advocate to shift the funds … to keep people in their homes for as long as possible.”
Independents Eliot Cutler and Kevin Scott agreed, with Scott suggesting his long-talked-about “workfare” proposal, where welfare recipients in essence earn their benefits by performing community service, could be one source of a powerful resource that won’t cost taxpayers more.
Democratic nominee Libby Mitchell, an attorney from Vassalboro who is currently the Maine Senate president, said the key to keeping people in their homes is to keep money flowing to the hundreds of social service agencies all over Maine that step in when they’re needed most. Some of those agencies, along with funding for families to care for ailing loved ones, have suffered cuts in the last two budget cycles.
Republican nominee Paul LePage’s response contrasted with the others. He said that from a budgetary standpoint, it is in the state’s interest to keep people living at home for as long as possible, but he stopped short of suggesting that government funding is the answer.
“I believe that it’s up to the family to take care of family members,” he said.
Differences between the candidates’ views shone through again as they assessed the merits — or detriments — of the national health care reform bill passed in March. The responses ranged from Mitchell’s belief that the bill is “like a seed” whose effects will multiply as time goes on to LePage’s opinion that it will do “nothing” to benefit Mainers.
“I want to be clear: I see health care as a right, not a privilege,” said Mitchell, adding that one of the bill’s benefits is that it will close a Medicare “doughnut hole” that causes some senior citizens to pay exorbitant fees for medications.
LePage faulted the bill because of the $500 billion it will siphon away from Medicare.
“I don’t think we need to go there,” said LePage. “I think we need to strengthen Medicare and Medicaid, not weaken them.”
Moody also railed against the bill, saying that the health care system could be greatly improved if fraud and abuse were eliminated.
“That would have been a great place to start,” he said. “We need free-market principles in our health care system.”
Cutler did not address the health care reform bill directly, but said he favors a system in which “everyone in Maine has access to health care services” as long as the cost is sustainable and the plan emphasizes prevention and wellness measures.
Scott said he wasn’t familiar enough with the details of the new law to evaluate it, but that as governor he would seek out solutions on this issue and others from experts and then lead by promoting those ideas.
Scott, a businessman from the western Maine town of Andover, used Tuesday’s forum to unveil a previously unheard proposal when he was asked what he would do to prevent financial, physical and emotional abuse of elders. He proposed the creation of a registry — modeled after Maine’s sex offender registry — that would identify and track the locations of people convicted of crimes against elders.
“We need to know in our communities who is responsible for elder abuse,” he said. “We need to start making people more aware of this problem.”
Asked to identify what specifically he would do to benefit senior citizens, LePage repeated his pledge to eliminate taxes on pension benefits, which triggered a rebuke from Cutler, who said he wouldn’t commit to such a cut.
“I’m not going to say that because I don’t know how much it’s going to cost, and I don’t think Paul does, either,” Cutler said.
Audience members told the Bangor Daily News that the forum was informative but not without its faults. Russ Hazzard of Winthrop said the timed responses didn’t allow the candidates ample time to state their positions. On the other hand, Rosamond Becker of Portland, who serves on a health care-related task force under the AARP, said she felt as if the candidates were missing something important.
“I noticed there was a tendency to group everyone as being in a nuclear family,” said the 79-year-old. “I have no family in Maine. To say that families need to take care of senior citizens is an oversimplification of the problem.”
