The position(s) Sen. Susan Collins took on the Graham-Cassidy proposal for Obamacare reform are bad for Maine. Each day we heard a new reason for being against this critical reform for the way health care is financed.

One day, it was reducing funds for Medicaid. Not true – the bill would have provided $325 million in additional funds to Maine, which is equal to almost 10 percent of the total Maine Department of Health and Human Services budget.

The next day, it was Medicare that will be affected – that it would affect our neighbors who are on Medicaid and Medicare. Maine has led the nation in improving the financial sustainability of Medicaid. Maine’s reform has made our elderly and disabled a priority over able-bodied individuals with no children.

Then Planned Parenthood ads blanketed our TV screens, telling us that care for women would be demolished under Graham-Cassidy. This, too, is false.

Planned Parenthood has four clinics in southern Maine. Greater Portland Health, a federally qualified health center, has five locations, and there are an additional 139 such clinics across the entire state of Maine. This does not include the more than 745 hospital-based physician practices that must provide access to services without regard for a person’s ability to pay.

It appears that Sen. Collins is looking for national funding for her possible campaign for governor, not for what is best for all Mainers.

David Printy

Damariscotta

 


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