While the news in general has certainly been charged and emotional lately, there is a Maine-specific issue that is critical to us all. As we are deluged with a firehose of information throughout the rapid-fire news cycle, it is really easy to lose track of what is really important.

In my clinical work as a psychiatrist, I am often asked by my patients, given that there are so many TV commercials about medications, “What do I really need to know? What’s important and what’s the bottom line?”

So here goes: this is what we all need to know. And make sure our neighbors know.

Randy Billings’ reporting (“State budget deadlocked as Republicans call for spending cuts,” Feb. 26) accurately reports that there will be impacts to health care. And wow, is he right.

Here is what you need to know. It makes no difference whether you are a Republican, Democrat, independent, liberal, conservative, Libertarian, moderate, Martian, or of some other idiosyncratic political stripe. But it does affect you and your families if you have a pulse. If you have no pulse and are dead, there is no reason to read further. If you are alive, or know someone who is, please do read on.

If the Maine Legislature does not pass the state supplemental $121 million budget, with its impacts on all of our health care, it will be disastrous. While this sounds hyperbolic, the bottom line is that if the budget is not passed without two-thirds support, funding for MaineCare will be delayed until September.

The vast majority of health care facilities — the very medical agencies that support our basic health care needs — will be put into a terrible position. Pharmacies will not be paid for certain medications. Hospitals would be paid at a non-sustainable rate, with claims exceeding $50,000 going unpaid. Heck, that’s the cost of two or three nights in the ICU.

Also, providers of all types, ranging from medical equipment suppliers that provide our basic wheelchairs and many other devices to physicians, physical therapists and mental health counselors, will be profoundly and existentially financially challenged. This is because very few health care providers (think your doctor, local pharmacist, medical practice, durable medical equipment dealer, therapist, nursing home, mental health counselor or small hospital, among many others) has enough cash on hand to last until September, which is half a year away. Do you?

In fact, few health care entities have more than enough cash on hand to cover 40 business days, which includes the salaries of the employees and the other overhead costs. This means many practices will close, further worsening a health care access crisis in Maine that has been extensively covered in this newspaper and others.

We are seeing in real time job cuts at federal facilities such as the Veterans Administration at the Togus VA Hospital. With a large number of veterans in Maine, we risk further loss of services and longer waiting lists for the most basic of medical care. If you or anyone you know receives care at a clinic, health care facility, pharmacy, physical therapy practice, or may need emergency or hospital care, you and yours are at risk for further loss of critical medical services and longer wait times.

It matters not whether you need a colonoscopy or if you have a child in crisis: your waiting time for care, assuming you can even get it in your community, will only increase as providers go out of business, close their doors, as some already have in the Waterville area, and with others already having contingency plans to relocate out of state.

Health care represents 21% of jobs in Maine and also provides a multiplier effect. This means that if your local physical therapist, doctor, pharmacist or other provider loses their job or leaves the community, that is another customer lost to your business, whether a builder, car dealership, lumberyard, fisherman, farmer or a dry cleaner.

Indeed, it is estimated that every dollar spent in health care, given the large number of health care workers, generates $3 in the economy via this amazing multiplier effect, which is even substantially larger in rural communities with fewer businesses overall. On the deepest societal level, this effect demonstrates how interconnected we all are with each other and the importance of setting differences aside.

As such, it is my hope the Legislature can pass the supplemental budget and avoid obvious disaster. The people of Maine deserve better than having a Legislature shoot us all in the foot and have nobody to turn to to treat our self-inflicted gunshot wound.