Gov. LePage has proposed making up part of the DHHS shortfall by eliminating programs currently funded by the Fund for a Healthy Maine. This would reduce funding for the Healthy Maine Partnerships created in 2001 by 88 percent, basically eliminating all the partnerships, including the Choose To Be Healthy Partnership that serves southern York County.

The Healthy Maine Partnerships prevent and reduce tobacco use, substance abuse and obesity in all Maine communities through sound evidence-based programs.

York Hospital has served as the fiscal agent and close working partner of Choose To Be Healthy since its inception. Results of Choose To Be Healthy’s work with local partners include:

The creation of smoke-free town recreation areas, including beaches in York and Ogunquit that are visited by more than 250,000 people each summer.

Promotion of the Tobacco Free Helpline, which helped 953 smokers from York County in 2011.

Support for wellness programs in 20 local businesses, which helped nearly 3,000 employees be healthy and productive through education, incentives and best practice policies.

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Obesity prevention training for local child care providers, serving nearly 400 children.

Bringing in more than $650,000 in additional grants that promote health.

Maine has made good progress in improving the health of our residents. In 2003, Maine was ranked the 16th healthiest state. By 2009, Maine ranked ninth.

Chronic diseases are the most common, costly and preventable health problems in Maine. For every dollar spent now on prevention, we save $7.50 in future health care, treatment and public safety costs.

We need to continue our efforts to reduce and prevent tobacco use, substance abuse and obesity. To accomplish this, we need the Healthy Maine Partnerships.

Eliminating the Healthy Maine Partnerships will hurt Mainers, young and old.

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Jud Knox,

CEO York Hospital

York

I am writing today as a board member of the Healthy Maine Partnerships in Cumberland County. I fear we are losing sight of a critical component of health – prevention.

The governor’s budget proposal would eliminate all 27 of the Healthy Maine Partnerships, squander a decade of work and divert half of the state’s share of the Tobacco Master Settlement, known as the Fund for a Healthy Maine.

We need to continue using the Fund for a Healthy Maine as it was initially intended – to prevent disease and promote health.

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We save about $7.50 in health care costs for every $1 invested in preventing disease and promoting health – the highest rate of return of any state in the nation.

Healthy Maine Partnerships also bring additional funds into the community and have allowed Cumberland County communities to apply for additional federal and state grants. Since their inception in 2001, the Cumberland County Healthy Maine Partnerships have brought in more than $4 million in additional grants to support health in our communities.

The tobacco and beverage industries spend millions each year marketing their products in Maine. And they are successful: Smoking costs Mainers $602 million annually, and obesity costs Mainers more than $350 million each year in direct medical costs.

Healthy Maine Partnerships cut immediate and future costs for government, businesses, hospitals, schools, families and individuals. If we don’t prevent the very things that drive up our health care costs, we will always find ourselves needing more funds to pay for the expensive costs of treatment.

Emily Rines, MPH

Brunswick

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Historic murals deserve special place in school

It was with great delight that I read the front-page story saying that the historic murals removed from the closed Nathan Clifford School are being restored and soon to be displayed at the new Ocean Avenue Elementary School in Portland (“Two historic Maine murals to get prime spots in new school,” Jan. 11).

Ralph Frizzell’s creations “Farming” and “Fishing” are colorful, realistic and historical compositions of hard-working Maine people in the early 20th century.

This is a treasure for the children and staff of the Ocean Avenue School. Kudos for saving the works of art, and thanks to The Portland Press Herald for publishing the photos of them in full color!

Kristen Gould

Kennebunk

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Social Security is essential program, not entitlement

During the course of our history, there have been financial panics – a testimonial to the greed that resides in the houses of power.

The Crash of 1929 might have destroyed the republic if there had not been wise and forward-thinking people in the houses of government and in some of the offices of the industrial complex.

In 1935, under the stewardship of the president and Congress, the Social Security Act was one of the finest pieces of legislation since the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

It matters not whether the creators/sponsors were Democrats or Republicans, politicians or businessmen, scholars or philanthropists. Whether by chance, desperation for a ray of hope, political positioning or logical planning for the future, the Social Security Act was, and still is, a manifestation of what every society needs for its people.

As Confucius so aptly stated many years ago: “Give instruction unto those who cannot procure it for themselves.”

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The majority of the people in this country do not have the will, understanding, opportunity or guidance to save money and plan for their retirement years. The Social Security Act provides the “instruction” that Confucius recognized so long ago.

With the cooperative effort of government, employers, employees and the self-employed, the Social Security Act provided the generation of a fund that, when properly invested and managed, would grow. It was then and is now critical that all – repeat, all – wages, from $1,000 to $1 million, be subject to the same specified deposit into the fund.

Millions of people without the discipline, knowledge and opportunity will benefit from a carefully managed Social Security Act. It is not an “entitlement” any more than a pension plan or stock market investment is an “entitlement.”

Charles S. Copp

Westbrook


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