Thank you for the important editorial Sept. 5 highlighting steps Maine can take to support working women that are also business-friendly (“Our View: Working Maine women need policy protections”).

I am writing to emphasize another piece of the puzzle – access to health care. By refusing to accept the federal dollars set aside to cover more people in MaineCare, Maine is the only state in New England to leave a gap in coverage for its residents: nearly 70,000 people, including these women working in low-wage jobs without health coverage.

Since Jan. 1, we’ve lost over $231 million in federal money, or $900,000 a day, and counting, that would have come into Maine.

These are dollars that could be used to provide mammograms, prescriptions and flu shots for the day-care workers who care for our children and for direct care workers who care for our seniors, as well as the retail and service workers who come into daily contact with members of the public.

If you have paid sick leave but no insurance to get your flu shot or see your doctor, the paid time off isn’t nearly as valuable. Working women need both MaineCare coverage and paid sick leave. These are the policies that will help lift women out of poverty and into the middle class.

Unfortunately, Gov. Paul LePage has rejected this common-sense idea, consistently vetoing bipartisan efforts five times, even though 28 Republican and Democratic governors around the country have realized this opportunity is too good to pass up. Maine women deserve better; we all deserve better.

Andrea Irwin

Portland

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