Don’t cut Medicaid
Most people want to stay in their own homes for as long as possible as they age. Being able to keep friends, family and familiar surroundings is preferable to institutional care and usually less expensive. Unfortunately, debilitating conditions such as dementia make caring for a loved one at home all but impossible and a nursing home is needed. A family caregiver worries about paying for a loved one’s care at home or in a nursing home. For some, MaineCare, our state’s Medicaid program, pays for all or part of the long-term care. Home aides help with bathing or dressing and respite care for caregivers.
The majority of Maine’s nursing home patients’ services are paid for by MaineCare. Without MaineCare, many nursing homes would be financially ruined. Without MaineCare, family caregivers would not be able to support their loved one at home. This is a problem with the Senate health care bill — Better Care Reconciliation Act. If this bill passes, Medicaid spending will be slashed. The services Maine family caregivers need could be reduced or eliminated and those most at risk would suffer. Maine is old and getting older. We cannot let this happen.
Sen. Susan Collins must stand strong for Maine and Medicaid. Caregivers and their loved ones are counting on her to vote no on the Senate health bill or any health care plan that cuts Medicaid.
Rosalyn Fisher
Bangor
Collins stands up for health care
My grandson was born with spina bifida. Before the Affordable Care Act went into effect, my daughter could not get insurance for my grandson. My daughter and her family earned too much to qualify for Medicaid, and because of his pre-existing condition, they could not obtain other insurance for him.
They relied on the emergency room to make sure his shunt was working and to deal with his deteriorating kidney. My grandson received excellent care from some wonderful physicians, but cobbling together ER visits is no way to take care of a chronic condition.
By time my grandson was 3 years old, my daughter was almost $80,000 in debt from the surgeries and hospital stays. My daughter and my grandson are living proof that those who have insurance get the best care, while those who don’t have insurance struggle just to get by.
The Affordable Care Act gave them a path to affordable health care for the first time in my grandson’s young life. They could have regular doctor’s appointments, take care of issues before they became emergencies, save my grandson’s kidney, and get him the care and treatment any child deserves. Thanks to the law’s protections, my grandson can’t be denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition.
This is America. We must make sure that those who need them have access to affordable, essential health benefits. I thank Sen. Susan Collins for opposing the current Senate health care bill, and I urge her to stand strong for all people who need to know that they will continue to have affordable care, now and in the future.
Nadine Bangerter
Rockland
Expand coverage for mental health care
Dave (not his real name) was in and out of high-cost psychiatric facilities, stuck in a hopeless cycle of mental illness, not getting the care he needed. Today, he has his own apartment near his family. He’s stable and living a life in his community.
Across the U.S., approximately one in five people are affected by mental illness. Yet, more than half of these individuals do not receive treatment. We need more coverage for mental health care, not less.
The Senate health reform bill will take us backward. It allows states to let health insurance plans drop mental health and substance use coverage. It will devastate community mental health programs by cutting Medicaid funding, making it harder for people to get psychiatric medications and other mental health services.
More and more mentally ill people with limited access to care and medications will have nowhere else to go but to already overwhelmed emergency rooms, county jails and city streets. While cutting health care spending may sound like a good idea, in the long-run, it will force the uninsured to get care in emergency rooms and hospitals at a much higher cost.
Take it from someone working on the frontlines with people like Dave every day: we can do better.
There will be far too many tragedies if access to quality treatment becomes unavailable. It’s time we keep the promise of care for the mentally ill by demanding that coverage for mental health is preserved in any proposal passed by Congress.
Lee Ohmart
Bangor