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You can’t help but notice the large ads on the Bangor Daily News online edition warning about higher taxes and health care costs.
As a doctor who has worked in Maine since the early 1980s, I find it sad and infuriating that the Maine Chamber of Commerce would engage in what I believe is trickery. A comparison of Maine with our neighbors in New Brunswick, who have “socialized” health care, shows the dishonesty of these ads.
In New Brunswick, for example, the overall tax burden is about the same as in Maine. Every person in New Brunswick is covered by the national, not-for-profit system, but 5 percent of Mainers have no coverage. A single Mainer pays an average of over $400 per month and has high deductibles. In New Brunswick, health care is nearly free, with no monthly premiums and no deductibles.
Our neighbors to the north pay no co-pay for doctor’s visits, but they do have to pay for dental care and medications. And, lest you conclude that care is inferior in New Brunswick, life expectancy is two years longer in New Brunswick than in Maine.
Shame on the Maine Chamber of Commerce and others who support our expensive and immoral for-profit health system.
Peter Millard
Belfast