Thank you for the fine editorial of April 21 (“Maine lawmakers’ inaction on red flag law is a monumental failure”). Tragically, Mainers will pay in lives.

Even worse, our state again has chosen not to fund a bid for a waiver to outdated federal restrictions on the use of Medicaid funds for services for “mental illness.” Securing this waiver, which we did for substance abuse treatment, would allow us access to federal funds to help serve and save lives. Sen. Joe Baldacci’s L.D. 445 passed both the House and the Senate last year and was the top priority of the Health and Human Services Committee. It was never funded.

Why? By spending $1.3 million in state funds, Maine would have received millions in federal dollars to develop and expand progressive treatment programs and other in-depth services. Treatment before tragedy is so much better than tragedy before treatment. Maine’s shortsighted discriminatory inaction has and will again cost more Maine lives.

The outdated federal Institute for Mental Diseases exclusion law, created in 1965, is, by itself, a national security crisis; it harms Americans by denying federal funds for vital mental health services. Maine’s motto is to lead. In the absence of state-level action, urge Maine’s congressional delegation to collectively co-sponsor a bill to help end this extreme discrimination nationwide. Given our state’s inability to fund a waiver bill, they should act promptly to help Mainers – and all other Americans.

Joe Pickering, Jr.
Chair, Truth Tear Down this Wall Committee
Bangor

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