Vote YES on QUESTION 2 for Medicaid Expansion

VOTE FOR HEALTH COVERAGE FOR 70,000 LOW-INCOME MAINERS

On Tuesday, November 7th, vote YES on QUESTION 2 to expand Medicaid to provide health insurance for 70,000 low-income Mainers who presently lack coverage. This referendum measure will enable individual Mainers earning less than $16,643 and a family of two with income below $22,412 to access preventitive care and treatment instead of having to wait until very sick to go to the emergency room. The Maine Legislature has voted 5 times to accept $500 million a year in federal funds available to expand MaineCare (this state’s Medicaid program). Governor Lepage and a minority of legislators have repeatedly blocked this legislation, costing Maine about $1.2 billion. Volunteers gathered 61,000 signatures from York to Aroostook to put Question 2 on the ballot this Tuesday.

MEDICAID EXPANSION IS GOOD FOR MAINE’S ECONOMY

$500 million a year in federal funds for expanded health care in Maine will flow throughout Maine to clinics, doctor’s offices, hospitals and other healthcare providers supporting an estimated 4,000 health sector jobs, according to a favorable Portland Press Herald editorial. YES on QUESTION 2 will improve access to treatment for otherwise uninsured Mainers struggling with addiction. Mainers for Health Care estimates saving over $27 milliion in state funded health care spending. The Bangor Daily News asserts Maine is this nation’s most rural state and the 31 states that have already expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) obtained an disproportionately positive effect with an 11% drop in uninsured rates in small and rural communities. Maine Equal Justice Partners urges Medicaid Expansion will keep down the premiums for private health insurance because hospitals will avoid about $217 million in uncompensated or “charity” care costs otherwise shifted onto everybody else’s health care and insurance bills. Fewer sick or injured Mainers will face the choice between hunger and eviction or seeing the doctor after Medicaid Expansion, which will also cut bankruptcies due to huge hospital bills for needed uninsured care. The Maine Unitarian Universalist State Advocacy Network (MUUSAN) advises Medicaid Expansion is all about compassion, equity and human dignity in the form of prevention, better health, addiction treatment and less financial stress for an estimated 70,000 Maine citizens.

People’s Forum on Health Care Monday 3/27 First Parish U.U. 425 Congress St. Portland Maine 6-8 pm

First Parish U.U. 425 Congress St. Portland ME
Historic 1826 stone Meeting House on the site where the Maine Constitution was drafted in 1820.

PEOPLE’S FORUM ON HEALTH CARE Monday March 27 6-8 PM

First Parish U.U. Meeting House 425 Congress St. Portland

The Southern Maine Workers’ Center, Maine AllCare and the Maine State Nurses Association will hold a People’s Forum on Health Care to hear voices of Mainers impacted by the health care crisis. The forum will be attended by Maine State legislators, including senator Ben Chipman and representatives Rachel Talbot Ross and Ben Collings.

The Maine Health Care is a Human Right Coalition advocates for universal, publicly funded health care. The flawed Affordable Care Act left too many people without access to care, and prioritized insurance company profits. But efforts in Washington to dismantle the Affordable Care Act will leave millions more without access to health insurance. In Augusta, Governor Lepage has proposed a state budget that will eliminate 20,000 additional people from MaineCare. President Trump is pushing austerity legislation in Congress far worse than the ACA.

The Republican bill will be a disaster. 24 million people will lose health care coverage, particularly rural and elderly people, which will hit Maine hard. This bill amounts to a massive transfer of wealth to the richest people in the world, and it will cause unnecessary death and hardship.”  Peggy Marchand – SMWC member speaking at 3/27 Forum

The People’s Forum on Health Care will feature testimony from folks directly impacted by the health care crisis and urge the solution of universal, publicly funded care.

For the last four years, we’ve been talking to people all across the state, and 94% of the people we surveyed believe healthcare is a human right. 80% percent support the idea of a universal, publicly funded health care system. It’s time politicians fight for what the people want.”   Ronald Flannery SMWC/HCHR Organizer

For more information, contact Angus Ferguson angus@rally4justice.com 207 749-6618 or Ronald Flannery ronald@maineworkers.org 207-344-4485