Money for health care, not industry
I agree with Senator Angus King’s March 31 OpEd that the ACA covered millions and facilitated MaineCare expansion for impoverished Mainers. But the senator should know that improvements to the ACA will not bring affordable coverage to rural and minimum wage earners that he represents.
Medicare works well for those over 65 and many disabled people. Let’s extend Medicare. If King and Washington colleagues won’t expand Medicare to all, they should not tweak the imperfect ACA. Instead, King should advocate for a Maine Medicare-like program.
In fact, bills in the current Maine legislature would equitably cover all of us. Many states are working on similar goals. Such programs are feasible and would support failing rural hospitals and doctors who would like to practice in rural Maine. Let’s spend Maine dollars on health care for Mainers, instead of wasting it on ACA complexity or sending it off to tweak insurance and pharmaceutical industries’ profits.
William Clark, M.D.
Brunswick
Paid sick leave would be meaningful change
Earned paid sick leave is a current bill that is near and dear to my heart.
If a business can not afford to humanely treat its employees, it cannot afford to be in business. Maine can lead the way in a nation that is otherwise the laughing stock of the modern world when it comes to caring for its workers, their rights and their health.
Meaningful change for the working class has been locked out of Augusta for years; legislators should not obstruct one of the first glimmers of hope. We do not need two classes of workers — one in Portland where earned paid sick leave may be enacted on a municipal level, and another where everyone else in the state continues to fight for scraps.
Corey Butler
Troy
Not worried about NECEC
When I hear people complain about the Central Maine Power right of way that is being considered, it makes me think about how people must have felt when they saw the first telephone poles going up.
What words of horror were spoken when the first television antennas were erected on roofs? Were there any screams of headaches? I don’t think so. How about the existing power lines? We have several where I live and all I hear about them is how hunters like to walk them during hunting season.
I am not taking a position on this new CMP proposal of right of way, because I will leave that to those familiar with this subject. I seem to be doing OK with the telephone poles, TV antennas and power lines. No need to pass the Excedrin this way.
Doug Pooler
Dexter
Observing Vision Rehabilitation Awareness Week
Vision Rehabilitation Therapist Awareness Week will be observed this year the week of April 14-20 to commemorate Anne Sullivan’s birthday. Sullivan was born on April 14, 1866 and was a pioneer of the vision rehabilitation profession. As a teacher, she worked closely with Helen Keller to develop the skills Keller would later use as an international lecturer and advocate for individuals with vision and hearing loss.
Sullivan, a graduate of the Perkins School for the Blind, began working with 7-year-old Keller in 1887 as a home teacher, the original occupational title for the profession now called vision rehabilitation therapist (VRT). Just as in Sullivan’s career, today’s VRTs often travel to their client’s homes or workplaces for training.
Today’s VRTs most often hold a Master’s level education, and additional national certification to meet established professional standards. For well over a century, as home reachers, rehab teachers and now vision rehabilitation therapists, VRTs have provided the primary rehabilitation skills training for individuals experiencing blindness or vision loss.
Most often, clients are adults who have experienced an acquired vision loss through diseases such as macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetes, etc. Referrals may come from doctors, or clients may refer themselves through local state or nonprofit agencies. Often, VRT services are provided at no out-of-pocket cost. More information about VRT services in Maine are available at the Division for the Blind and Visually Impaired.
Steven Kelley
Vision rehabilitation therapist
Kennebunk