Expand Medicaid
A bill, LD 633, in this legislative session would significantly increase the ability of low-income uninsured Maine residents to access life-saving health care through Medicaid expansion. But there is still an evident resistance to this bill.
As a social work intern at Maine Medical Center, I have witnessed firsthand an inundation of patients seeking to receive treatment at the hospital who are uninsured and who have fallen through the cracks. Many of these patients are in critical condition because they delayed receiving preventative care due to high out-of-pocket costs they could not afford. It is absolutely disheartening to know that if these patients had access to preventative treatment, their health would not have to decline to a life-threatening point when care is more costly.
Furthermore, if hospitals keep absorbing the costs of many uninsured patients, this institution may be super vulnerable to financial setbacks, and this could result in layoffs to hard working providers and limits on granting free care, which would mean fewer services to uninsured residents.
Medicaid expansion would reduce free care in hospitals, and allow 70,000 Maine residents to gain coverage and restore their ability to receive necessary, life-sustaining treatment. This bill preserves the notion that health is a human right and should be accessible to everyone, regardless of their socioeconomic status.
I encourage Maine residents to support LD 633 and reach out to legislators and elected officials to vote in favor of this pressing bill that could impact the lives and well-being of so many vulnerable Mainers.
Luzzei Tsuji
Portland
Move to the Katahdin region
I have a solution for Portland and Bangor’s tight housing market: move to the Katahdin region and buy a home here. We have hundreds of family homes for sale at eye-wateringly low prices, and if you are self-employed or part of the creative economy and love Maine’s wild interior, this is the place for you.
Jessica Masse
Medway
Presidential clown show
Earlier this month, Republican candidates for president Marco Rubio and Donald Trump engaged in a discussion about the size of their hands and male organs. This is absolutely appalling. This might be a funny joke on a comedy show like “Two and a Half Men,” but this is very public childish and crude behavior between people who aspire to be our president. For them to carry on this way is not comedy, it’s humiliation. We’ve become the laughing stock of the world that can’t believe we’ve given these clowns the time of day, much less our endorsement.
It’s hard to believe that the party that has been waging war on women and minorities for years has been reduced to a circus act with no serious, capable candidates. Earnest thinking people might revel in the thought of Trump becoming the Republican nominee. He’s a farce, after all and surely bound to lose, right? I’m not so sure, considering we elected and re-elected Paul LePage for governor. As an electorate, Americans are fully capable of making idiotic decisions.
We’re going down a dangerous path. We must stop this bizarre show and return to civility as we nominate and elect a serious candidate for president.
Alan Parks
Bar Harbor
GMO labeling about food safety
I am tired of reading about how GMO-derived foods are not about people’s health. I am a living (thankfully) example that it is. I have had severe allergies all of my life. I became intolerant of wheat, suffered a life-threatening asthma attack and was tested for celiac disease, which I do not have. Gluten isn’t the issue. I eat ancient forms of wheat with no problem. The issue is my body considers the proteins in GMO wheat and other GMO products as foreign bodies and attacks them as it does any other allergen.
I read recently about how former Sen. Olympia Snowe worked years ago to force labeling of shellfish substitutes being served up in restaurants as lobster because they could induce allergic responses in some people. GMO wheat is no different.
I work for the state. Organic is expensive and beyond my means. For some products, it is critical to my survival. Please consider those of us for whom this is not just about a right to know, but a right to live. Others with gluten sensitivity have yet to learn, it’s not about the gluten.
Linda Butler
Jefferson
Let unenrolled vote in primaries
According to Maine’s secretary of state, as of March 6, 2016, there are 365,130 unenrolled registered voters in the state. That figure represents 37 percent of the 978,146 total registered voters. Our present caucus system and Sen. Justin Alford’s proposed primary initiative excludes these unenrolled (independent) voters. This requirement, in my opinion, restricts rather than increases voter participation.
Although I am in support of moving Maine toward a primary election system rather than caucuses, I am not in favor of Alford’s bill to create a closed primary system that excludes unenrolled voters, unless they enroll in a party. I understand that the political establishment wants to protect its turf, build party numbers and not have independent voters influence a party’s nomination process. But I believe that increasing voter participation to help ensure we choose candidates who are truly representative of Maine trumps these establishment concerns.
I am in support of an amendment to Alford’s proposal that will move Maine toward a semiclosed primary system in which unenrolled voters must choose which party primary to vote in, while voters registered with a party may only vote in that party’s primary. This semiclosed primary represents a middle ground between the exclusion of unenrolled voters in a closed primary, and the free-for-all of open primaries. It further reduces the concerns about voters registered in other parties from raiding another party’s nominating contest.
Please contact your local representatives in Augusta and ask them to support an amendment to Alford bill to adopt a semi-closed primary system for Maine.
Bob Croce
Dedham
Great photos and storytelling
It is hard to say which is more compelling — Kosti Ruohomaa’s photos or Troy Bennett’s story about them. But both are remarkable and give a moving picture of Maine.
Thanks BDN for giving both such a showcase and your readers a fascinating glimpse of the past that isn’t quite the past.
Patricia Schroth
Sedgwick