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• Anonymous

  Adults who are able bodied should NOT be on MaineCare. Children and the disabled yes. Others no. Maine needs to change the dependency culture fostered by too many years of politicians making promises that could never be realistically kept.
  Thank you governor!

• Anonymous

  We all know these cuts will hurt Mr. LePage more than it will the people that are cut. [ Sarcasm implied]

• Mr_Spuddy

  Of course it’s tough to share cuts with people who will be affected, but LePage said he was going to do what had to be done to set Maine back on the right track–and I for one believe he is trying.

• StillRelaxin

  These folks who’s care will be cut will only show up in emergency rooms to receive much more critical and expensive care from the hospitals who will provide it because it’s the right thing to do.  Who pays for this expensive emergency room care? Yep, us.  Hospitals simply pass on the expense with higher charges to those who can afford to pay.  So what good will Mr. Lepage’s proposals do?  Really none, other than score a few points with those who don’t have a clue and hate supporting others/society in any way.

• Anonymous

   Blame someone else while bringing a lot of misery and pain–all during the holiday season.  I doubt Ebenezer Scrooge could have done a better job attacking the poor and patting the back of the wealthy. 

  LeScrooge–bah humbug!

• Anonymous

  Corporate profit welfare resulted in MaineCare, food stamps, LIHEAP, etc. Less than living wages = cost shifting to States/Feds allowing corporations a loop hole to profits who now want to blame the democrats who were responding to corporations’ greed.

• Anonymous

  When the lawmakers and Gov. lapage are cutting the medicade plan for the 65000 mainers we never hear how much is being cut from their health plan matter of fact we never hear what kind of plan the taxpayers are paying for them.Same as Pres.obama throwing billions of dollars into bail out money for banks and corp.and cutting programs for the needy.the executives of these banks and corps.greatly thank the taxpayers for their huge multi million dollar raises.I still think the people would be served by adopting the law makers health plan if we all are on the same page it would be a lot easier for all.  

• Anonymous

  This proposal will effect Residential facilities for the elderly. Many elderly now face the prospect of being homeless due to these proposed cutbacks. Too bad LaPage doesn’t put his money where his mouth is and reduce his government compensation. That would set the example that he means business and is not simply mean.

• hasacluemaine

  Wonders why technology in other industies has driven down cost, but increased technolgies in health care only seems to increase costs. Hmmm.

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_7T3YNF6MG3FPEAVTFIJC44VQUI Dlbrt

  Great Plan!
   
  Cut the Health care benefits and blame the Democrats!
   
  Right out of the Heritage Center Playbook!
   
  Government ain’t the solution, Government is the problem!
   
  If there ain’t a Crisis we will make one and put the Blame on the Government!
   
  Not the Republican Government but the Democrat Government so at least if we  cant control it,
   
  we can  destroy it!

• Anonymous

  If I had my way I would let every department in Augusta, and Washington, DC go right on spending every cent that they can beg, borrow or steal, until we are broke. At least at that point, mercifully, the constant fighting over the redistribution of wealth would be over.

  A lot of Americans do not deserve to have anyone try to fix this mess. They neither really understand the circumstances, nor care about anyone but themselves.

  The states, and our national government have promised way more to lots of people than our national and state economies can continue to provide. There are lots more people than this who are going to lose their “government crutch”. this is just the opening salvo of a long battle, like America has never seen before.

  And I want to see Wall St banks and financiers lose their Government “crutch” just as much as the welfare abusers.It has all got  to end if our nation is going to survive. 

  You preaching the politics of envy can tax all the millionaires you want, at least those who are stupid enough to keep that wealth in the country, and it will not be even a drop in the bucket.

  Olympia and her husband are millionaires. I am surprised that more are not hollering for them to kick $50,000 into Stephen Kings Liheap fund, that would truly be “compassion”.

• Anonymous

  People who have no insurance will just go to the emergency room when they are sick and we will be forced to absorb the same costs 8(

• Anonymous

  I think it is only fitting,due to the shortfall in State income , that the Governor and his family share in the misery. I think it would be a good idea to shut down the Blaine House for the winter. I would guess that the savings in heating cost would be substantial. The Governor makes an above average income so he should be able to provide his own housing. If the LePage family had to buy their own groceries  it would help them to better understand what ordinary Mainers are facing. After all we need to be concerned with the tea party members tax dollars. 

• Anonymous

  It can be more costly not to cover them. If they are not treated because the lack of coverage for somethings. having a healtly population is a LOT cheap then having a sick one.

• Anonymous

  I don’t see how throwing people off Medicaid is going to reduce insurance premiums or taxes.  Of course, you could refuse to treat people at the emergency rooms.  The governor has to be reminded that the insurance companies weren’t noted for their overly solicitous premiums for people who could qualify for Medicaid nor for their rush to embrace those of us who have pre-existing  conditions.  The governor suffers from the sickness of only seeing what he wants to see. But then Medicaid doesn’t cover that illness does it?

• Anonymous

  Additionally, MECEP has estimated that the cuts will lead to the loss of 4,400 jobs in this state.  Remember, for every dollar LePage cuts, Maine also loses $2.00 in federal funding.  I can think of worse uses for that money than paying the salaries of healthcare professionals.

  Yes, prevention of illness is a lot more cost effective than acute care.

  A total re-thinking of healthcare in this country is needed, and yes healthcare costs are out of control.  But for LePage to make these cuts now, with so many already unemployed and with healthcare costs already so high — and to do it without offering an alternative plan — is both irresponsible and shortsighted.  It could easily end up costing Maine more in the long run.

  Something tells me LePage would be wanting to make these cuts even if DHHS was not running a deficit. (Still waiting to see the numbers that prove there is, in fact, that big a deficit.)

  So much for being the 8th healthiest state!

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OEFDEYGJYWX3MMI4S2QHDC5DXA Thistle

  We have been covering a lot of people for a long time.

  By your reasoning, medical care should be dirt cheap by now.

• Anonymous

  LePage is a bully who beats you up and then tells you it’s your fault for letting him beat you up.  

• Anonymous

  reminds me of the old adage when a parent spanks a child…”this hurts me alot more than its hurts you”….

• Anonymous

  Throwing these people under the bus, given the fact that they wouldn’t be in the program in the first place if they had any other place to go, and then seeking to evade responsibility for doing so, is so squalid on so many levels I don’t know where to begin.  Merry Christmas Paul LePage!

• Anonymous

  Fewer and fewer people have insurance, which in turn drives up the fees that hospitals and other medical service providers must charge.  Let’s face it, the uninsured don’t disappear.  they just go to the most expensive version of medical care – the emergency room!  By law the hospitals cannot refuse care, so they provide it and the rest of us pay for it in higher costs.  Not to mention those who will be booted off that are elderly, disabled, etc.  Then look at the reduction in federal dollars coming into the state and imagine what that will do to the hospitals and to health care jobs!  As the oldest state in the country we are bound to have higher medicare users!

  Of course, it there were more employers creating jobs with health care it would help.  Maybe Walmart, Marden’s and others will start offering health insurance to all of their employees!

• Anonymous

  Decrease the surplus population.  Merry Christmas!

• Anonymous

  Like giving tax cuts to the richest – excuse me, the job creators – only where are the jobs?

• Anonymous

  Children and the disabled yes……and low income retiree’s!!!!!

• Anonymous

  I never said that, I said it cheaper to keep them on medicare in the long run.

• Anonymous

  I actually have a friend who is a government employee with the SAME policy that the Senators and Congressmen get. Apparently, it’s NOT the greatest out there. What a lot of people forget, is that to become a politician inside Washington, you generally NEED to be well off – at least a millionaire – or close to it, so what the insurance doesn’t cover your dollars will.

• Anonymous

  The Governers vision of “Maine The Way Life Should Be” Dead If Your Poor

• sassyfrazz

  What other industry is left here to make money at? 

  Hands in the till.  There are one heck of a lot more in the health care till then there was even as little as 15 years ago.

• sassyfrazz

  Excellent points.  I could not agree more. I honestly don’t know how people think a hospital pays its bills if no one (especially the very state who covers a large population of patients) pays the hospital, or only pays half what it’s billed. 

  Huh – must be that ‘free money” which rains down from the sky.

  Wal-Mart used to offer its pt employees an in to insurance (although a lot of them couldn’t afford it anyway with the low wages they paid but at least it was offered). Until this:

  http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/313276

• Anonymous

  Narth, please define “surplus population”?  Thanks …

• Anonymous

  This thing about uninsured ending up in emergency rooms only is a bit misleading: Many insured patients are pushed to use ER services.

  My husband was routinely TOLD by his primary care MD to visit the ER instead of him on a fairly consistent basis.

  The last straw was the removal of five sutures in his hand, and the MD would not even consider doing it.

  When husband got his hand cut at work and went to have the stitches put in at the ER, they said have his primary care MD remove them so he could check if there were no complications.. and on.. yakka, yakka., and see him if infections showed up, you know.. the common-sense stuff and yet, when he went to make the appointment.. nope.

  Would NOT see him.

  This was the same MD that couldn’t get him in fast enough when it’s time to order a test or to shuffle him off to a specialist, but when an actual medical EVENT needs seeing? Yeaaaah, right. How much effort would it take to snip out the sutures, take a BP and a quick once-over and make a note in his records? Fifteen minutes – in and out – no drama, a quick check-in and on with the day.. Sorry.. won’t do.. Go to the ER.

  What?

  It made my husband completely disgusted with the entire system, and he ended up removing the stitches – when they got ready to fall out – himself.

  Needless to say, I doubt we are the only people this happens to.

• Anonymous

  So say I am the MaineCare budget. Financial professionals have estimated my cost to the State to be $2 billion. That $2 billion I cost the state brings about $4 billion into Maine’s economy. If our wise lawmakers approve a “common sense” plan to cut my projected costs in half they will tell us they have made a tough decision to save $1 billion and let human tragedy on a massive scale be the price we must pay. Some of the posts here sound like you have that same common sense. Go ahead! Cut me! And when I’m projected to cost the State $1 billion I will bring only $2 billion instead of $4 billion into the state. That’s a net loss of capital infusion of 50% or an initial loss to the State of $2 billion. That’s just for starters because this common sense kicks off a downward spiral. That $3 billion is no longer going to businesses and working people that spend the money in Maine primarily and the taxes that would have been paid on $3 billion. So now that common sense has us trying to fill a $3 billion dollar hole in the budget. So the State “saves” $1 billion and loses $3 billion plus the jobs and revenue for a net loss to the State of Maine of at least $2 billion for starters. But good for you LePage. Great job! Keep up the good work! Thank God for common sense real people like you taking on that tough job of telling everybody that news. I’m sure you’ll do a wonderful job helping your subjects get through this tragic time. And you other back patting common sense real Mainers keep encouraging him. He’s got a tough job to do. How dare those Liberals, those Democrats try to wake this guy up before he blows $3 billion out of Maine’s economy and heads for Jamaica? The rascals must be silenced. Maybe if we all get mad enough and say enough rude, disparaging things to those Commies LePage will be able to be the dictator he was elected to be!!!

• Anonymous

  So say I am the MaineCare budget. Financial professionals have estimated my cost to the State to be $2 billion. That $2 billion I cost the state brings about $4 billion into Maine’s economy. If our wise lawmakers approve a “common sense” plan to cut my projected costs in half they will tell us they have made a tough decision to save $1 billion and let human tragedy on a massive scale be the price we must pay. Some of the posts here sound like you have that same common sense. Go ahead! Cut me! And when I’m projected to cost the State $1 billion I will bring only $2 billion instead of $4 billion into the state. That’s a net loss of capital infusion of 50% or an initial loss to the State of $2 billion. That’s just for starters because this common sense kicks off a downward spiral. That $3 billion is no longer going to businesses and working people that spend the money in Maine primarily and the taxes that would have been paid on $3 billion. So now that common sense has us trying to fill a $3 billion dollar hole in the budget. So the State “saves” $1 billion and loses $3 billion plus the jobs and revenue for a net loss to the State of Maine of at least $2 billion for starters. But good for you LePage. Great job! Keep up the good work! Thank God for common sense real people like you taking on that tough job of telling everybody that news. I’m sure you’ll do a wonderful job helping your subjects get through this tragic time. And you other back patting common sense real Mainers keep encouraging him. He’s got a tough job to do. How dare those Liberals, those Democrats try to wake this guy up before he blows $3 billion out of Maine’s economy and heads for Jamaica? The rascals must be silenced. Maybe if we all get mad enough and say enough rude, disparaging things to those Commies LePage will be able to be the dictator he was elected to be!!!

• Anonymous

  LePage is absolutely scary… He is carrying out the government foretold in Orwell’s books…  and there doesn’t seem to be any stopping him.  I can only hope those who put him office are taking notes… so they can do it again next time around!!!

• Anonymous

  You can thank the governor for cutting off a whole bunch of severely disabled people too. The governor threw that in for those not paying attention. We will now have the pleasure seeing disabled homeless people waste away. Their best hope now is too commit  major crimes so they can get taken care of in prison. And it will cost more right off the bat.

• Anonymous

  Does this guy even have a Soul? He really scares me. Guess it will take starving, freezing, dieing Mainers to finally recall this heartless thug. The tragedy is, most of Maine’s recipients of Medicaid are Maine’s Children.

• Anonymous

  Able bodied seniors who have worked hard their entire life should not have to choose between eating or buying your medication, between having to heating their home or going to the doctor. And as we have seen this week, there are thousands of disabled children whose families will lose in home services and seniors who will be affected.

• Anonymous

  By taking services away from our most severe disabled children and our elders? I don’t want his kind of leadership

• Anonymous

  I remember my health insurance being very affordable before this MaineCare free-for-all came into existence.   Emergency rooms are being flooded today because so many people are getting free health care, and not financially responsible at all.

• Anonymous

  no children are facing cuts  only childless adults primarily those 19 to 26

• Anonymous

  how does the 2 billion bring  4 billion to the states economy

• Anonymous

  Blatantly untrue. You give us the facts if you make a charge like that. Otherwise you are just lying. Plain and simple.

• Anonymous

  They have Medicare. This is about MaineCare. Know the facts before you discuss here.

• Anonymous

  Know the facts before you post here. This is about MaineCare, not Medicare. Trying to scare seniors is typical of your lefties. It’s all you have.

• Anonymous

  Ummm…this post of yours should get the award for the most over the top today. “Orwell”? Please.

• Anonymous

  The adults who are able bodied AND HEALTHY aren’t costing us anything — whether they are on Mainecare or not.  What happens to the ones who aren’t in good health?   That’s the question.

• Anonymous

  Yeah..what corporations are left in Maine? You liberals ran them all out with your high taxes and spending.

• Anonymous

  The liberal Democrats have run this state into the dirt for the last 40+ years and now the only guy trying to dig us out of this mess is the devil incarnate. Remember Lepage paid a good portion of Baldy’s Mainecare bills that he never did while in office.

• Anonymous

  Don’t try and reason with these guys, they are planning on scaring seniors with their lies that this is about Medicare. Also, don’t try and confuse them with facts that Maine is well above the national average in Medicaid benefits and costs.

• Anonymous

  LOL. He lost me there too. The entire rant against LePage is meaningless.

• Anonymous

  Hmmm..it will cost more not to cover the able bodied adults? Show me the facts.
  This is typical liberal speak you use when you want to explain how more government spending is really less government spending. Now that is Orwellian.

• Anonymous

  When the budget ax falls on education spending next because the lefties were able to save the benefits for the deadbeat able bodied who are on MaineCare watch them all scream some more.

• Anonymous

  Well, as Mr. Scrooge would say – send ‘em to the workhouse. And if they’re no longer productive, let ‘em die.

  Work. Productive. It’s all the Puritan Tea Party ethic cares about. If you can’t work, you are worthless.

  I believe this is Mr. LePage’s philosophy.

• Anonymous

  Good advice. Know what you are talking about before you post or before you tell someone else they are wrong. Go read exactly what is going to happen  because of what LePage is proposing. The proposal would end MaineCare support for residential facilities for the mentally and physically disabled, labeled “private, non-medical institutions,” to save $47 million in state funds. The facilities often house senior citizens who no longer own a residence but don’t need nursing home care. I doubt that even the most conservative members of the tea party would want to see senior citizens become homeless. Of course I could be wrong.

• Anonymous

  Did you read the part about defunding Private non medical Institutions? Severely disabled people live in these places.  Most of these people will either have to live in psych wards or prisons – which will end up costing  much more money.

• Anonymous

  That’s Impossible!!! there’s nowhere near 65,000 Single people between 19 and 26 in the State of Maine let alone on Maine Care! He want’s to cut all single people off from 18-65..

• Anonymous

  No, I said that having the government cover people and actually helping sick people will save the USA in money in loss productivity and other areas, then just allowing people to be sick. You are twisting words, I never said that it will decrease the USA government. It will decrease the cost to the American people and businesses.

• Anonymous

  Yes all of this money goes right back into the economy. This will drive Maine into a deep Depression.  This will put Maine on the wrong track.

• Anonymous

  4mermainer just roasted you!

• Anonymous

  there are 1.3 million people in the state avg life expectancy is 76 …19 to 26 is 7years thats roughly 10% of the states pop which is roughly 130,000  19 to 26 year olds 

• Anonymous

  I’m not sure about that. Many people on medicaid (not medicare) don’t hesitate to use medical services on account of the little personal cost-per-service to them. That hurts everyone else. Government programs to assist people almost always tend to exceed inflation through time, thus rendering these programs unaffordable. I agree with the governor. It’s time to cut down on these programs and let private industry do what it does best on the long run: provide goods and services. 

• Anonymous

  I work as a teacher, thankfully my job gives me the option of  insurance. I pay for myself, my children and my wife. The cost is significant, but I feel that we are being responsible. However, I work with a colleague who has his wife and kids on MaineCare and his insurance is fully paid for by the district. This is the kind of foolishness that needs to end when people get a free ride at everyone who works and does the right things expense.

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Q4AP5EYCYRCGZGIJGWI6TLIUEA Tom

  If Maine taxed its #1 cash crop, we’d have enough $$ for free health care for all, tourism $$ up the ying ying, and roads paved with gold?

• Anonymous

  Quite frankly, I can’t imagine that he’ll “Share” any of the tough cuts with Mainers.

  Semantics……?

  Aaahhh, I feel better with his sharing the pain!

• Anonymous

  Uninsured sick people will have to visit the emergency department which will result in costs being shifted onto the insured patients. That in turn will drive up the cost of premiums for everyone.  As the cycle progresses, more people won’t be able to afford insurance, including those who get it from employers now. Merry Christmas to Maine. Thank you, Governor LePage. How did you ever guess I wanted higher premiums?

• Anonymous

  yeah they check reason at the door , but it is amusing to see how socialists think.

• Anonymous

  How much of a tax break did he just give to his wealthy friends last year?  Bet that wasn’t tough to take.

• Anonymous

  LePage could use his influence with big box stores to save the cardboard boxes that big ticket appliances come in.  The disp0ssessed could shelter in them. Folks do it all over the world.   Not an optimal solution but he will do what he has to do.  Maybe he could get Hollywood to come to Maine to do a film about the siege of Leningrad.  That could create a few jobs.  The suffering dispossessed could be film extra’s and pick up some pin money to buy grinders at the 7-11.  This could be his idea of shared sacrifice, economic development, and pulling together! God bless us every one!

• Anonymous

  There have been several news stories on the local television stations interviewing seniors and parents of children with severe disabilities who will be losing many hours of service or who will be directly impacted by these measures. Perhaps you need to look deeper into this or perhaps WABI and WLBZ television stations are not being truthful and the people they are interviewing are lying?

• Anonymous

  There have been several news stories on the local television stations interviewing seniors and parents of children with severe disabilities who will be losing many hours of service or who will be directly impacted by these measures. Perhaps you need to look deeper into this or perhaps WABI and WLBZ television stations are not being truthful and the people they are interviewing are lying?

• Anonymous

  Yes very difficult for LePlague…..here’s what he did to “break” the news to the Maine families who will loose their health insurance… “Hey you entitled losers with no kids who are old and poor….too effin bad for you….poof!!!!! No insurance……sux to be you.”   Yes, we can all see just how hard it was for LePlague to “break the news”    Pfffffft.   He’s a joke.

• chris reid

  Lepage and his buddies in the state house will just pass a bill to not pay for ER care for the poor… Problem  Solved.  

• Anonymous

  Right at the beginning of the 2nd paragraph he indicates that it’s the other party’s fault.   “Over the last decade”.     Well Angus King was an independent, and he served 8  years as governor. And the democrats did not hold the majority in both houses throughout the decade.   

  He seeks blame, and his solution doesn’t address the need.   He state’s that Democrats use mainecare/medicaid as a solution for a national health care package.   He and other Republicans/and Tea Party members have said that the President’s plan is not going to work.     

  I have yet to see one viable Republican proposal to address the fact that working people are going without any form of affordable insurance,  LePage indicates that “it’s too expensive for businesses to participate and turn a profit (to create jobs)”

  How expensive is it for the employees?    How expensive is it going to be for the medical community who may or may not get paid.

  He says that he feels bad………….I doubt it.

• Anonymous

  I think everybody should get the facts before they put it in the paper or on tv. And as far as interviewing seniors or parents of disabled children that don’t know the complete facts is irresponsible reporting.

• Anonymous

  Replace government with the word taxpayer please. This is what you are talking about. Your verbiage is indicative of people who think the money to pay for all these goodies just comes from “the government”.

• chris reid

  LOL… “Let this teach you a lesson”… Reminds of that old “Our Gang” episode when Spanky ended up spankin’ his  dad. So funny -Thanks for the chuckle.

• Anonymous

  Cut LePage…………!!!!!

• chris reid

  I heard they did that by selling scratch tickets with no winners in the tourist seasons.

• Anonymous

  Blah blah blahing about liberals vs. the right is a useless waste of time.  Stop blaming the other side, learn the reality, and come up with some realistic answers. 

  I worked as an RN case mgr at one of the medical centers in Maine.  I’ve seen both sides – deadbeats who abuse the system and hard working middle class adults who get sick, have no insurance, and are eligible for nothing.  The problem is not black and white; neither is the answer.  Access to health care for all – with limits – is what’s needed.  And if you don’t like the “limits” part – who among us with health insurance doesn’t feel limited by deductibles, co-pays, and out of pocket? 

  If all you can do is repeat the rhetoric then you’re wasting your time and ours.

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_7T3YNF6MG3FPEAVTFIJC44VQUI Dlbrt

  It’s time to cut down on these programs and let private industry do what it does best on the long run: provide goods and services.

  You mean let them do what they do best, TAKE YOUR MONEY and Deny the Payments!

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_4UDTWMPKI35IE47KZU6WOMVFFY David

  If he didn’t have his lucky break in life IE. taken in by a wealthy family where would he be now? most of his 15 brothers and sister didn’t fair as well as he did. Republicans say they believe in people helping people not government well They should put thier money where thier mouth is  . Some do help Just not enough and too little.

• Anonymous

  It is dirt cheap………for those who can afford it.     It seems that benefits and the costs of health care don’t seem to increase together.

  If you are lucky enough to have a job that offers insurance benefits, you will be paying more, your company less due to their “expierence”…which is a crock…   and the insurance company’s will be making more.

  Here’s a novel idea……why don’t we allow lending institutions (banks) to offer health insurances and incorporate these premiums into a loan calculation?     Therefore, when you buy a house, or a car, or whatever…..each month you pay your payment, you are also paying your insurance premiums?

  What’s the purpose?……….competition.  The more competition, the better the prices. Oh, and this isn’t a novel idea, it was proposed in the 1980′s, and the insurance company’s went nuts about it. If you really think about it, there’s only 4–6 major health insurance providers in this country, and that’s stretching it.

• Guest

  I haven’t had health insurance since I moved out of my mother’s house 20 years ago.  I just checked for an individual at anthem BC/BS $180.06 per month $15,000 deductible ($2160.72/yr), the very best insurance they offer no deductible/no copay $1521.18 per month($18,254.16/yr)  check for yourself

  https://www8.anthem.com/individual/quote/healthcare/Health-Insurance-Free-Quote.html

  Medicaid Co-pay used to be $2.00 per visit

  THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM IS BROKEN, BECAUSE OF INSURANCE, medicaid included.  Ask your parents what the cost was to have you pre-1980

• Anonymous

  An able bodied adult who works at minimum wage for a company that doesn’t offer affordable insurance doesn’t get sick?    They don’t break bones, or have accidents?   Do you think that this proposal is going to stop these from happening?    

  The only thing that this proposal is going to do is increase the indigent expenses of medical facilities and hospitals……which are businesses.     

• Anonymous

  If LePage had courage he would do the real tough thing – raise taxes on the wealthy. They should be honered to help the needy. Now that would be shared sacrifice.

• Anonymous

  Well then,   the same bail out dollars (one for an insurance company),  the one’s that make the bomb’s that George Junior needed so badly (as a reaction to 9/11, and of course he went after IRAQ!!, an area that Bin Laden was never in) …….    all of these are paid by “the taxpayers”.  

• Jay Ellingsen

  I agree. Most of the wealth is in Cumberland and York county. Wonder how that idea will float.

• Anonymous

  Wrong…….Mainecare does in fact help medicare recipients.   Each and every medicare recipient has to pay a premium out of their social security check.   If eligible, a medicare recipient could apply and receive maine care monies to cover the cost of the premium, as well as the prescription deduction.    

  We are talking about senior individuals…..they have paid their prices.

• Guest

  It is already passed on to insured patients, if you don’t believe me check out your Usual & Customary paid by insurance, the balance is yours, check out what Medicaid pays for the same procedure, much less.

• Anonymous

  When is the state going to take a look at what people can buy with food stamps….it’s disgusting what you see in people’s carts…Power drinks, filet mignon, lobster and other high cost unnecessary junkfood. Also if parents could only get healthy food there wouldn’t be so many obese kids and that might help with health issues in the long run as these kids become adults…..maybe that would help with health insurance costs…

• Anonymous

  I agree it is not fair that you pay for your family and your colleage does not. Which is why I can not figure out why so many so called Republicans are against the mandate which requires everyone to purchase insurance?

• Anonymous

  Medicare and Medicaid are two different things. People over 65 (as the oldest state) are on Medicare. LePage is addressing taking young childless adults and some others off Medicaid. The elderly do have federal help covering most costs, at least nationall, not at the choice of the governor.

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_4UDTWMPKI35IE47KZU6WOMVFFY David

  Yes I agree its not a perfect world Why don’t they Raise the tax more on smokes Then the parents would have to sell more food stamps and thier  would have less to eat??????Most plans have good intentions. But they never seem to work for everyone. The weather have to do thier part .  Working poor give more as a percent of income than any other group .A Lot of the wealthy give for social status , advertising. or political gain.  

• Anonymous

  You’ve never read Dickens’ A Christmas Carol?

• Anonymous

  If what we hear about federal government cuts  (that money coming in from there in the past is not going to be coming) is true, then states have to be in better control of their spending.
   I know for a fact that a state worker told an 18 year-old girl who was pregnant that she would get MaineCare for the baby, but not for herself since she had her father’s insurance. She told her that if she had her father drop her, she could then get MaineCare. So, what did this girl do? She told her father to drop her (saving him the money) and became a burden for the state! Gotta love these helpful state office people. At the time I thought she should be fired! Then I realized this is just one situation in thousands like it.  

• Anonymous

  What do you suggest than? The governor is bound by the constitution to balance the budget. Our former governor did that by simply not paying the bill. Either way, the hospital was going to pass the cost on to someone else.  So what, the democrats get kudos for doing nothing other than deferring the payment?
  We need jobs in this state. A year ago Maine was ranked dead last in being business friendly. The prior administration added a total of 54 jobs in eight years. Do you think that is sustainable?  When the number of people collecting Maincare nearly goes up by the tens of thousands, and the number of tax paying workers goes up by 54, how long before the whole outhouse goes up in flames?

• Anonymous

  Back in the 1970s we didn’t need health insurance so much because a doctors visit was about $10. now my doctor charges $130 a visit! The cost of having a baby with a six day stay in the hospital cost about $800. now it’s $5,000 for a one day stay, xrays about $20 in 1977 now their $300 .Also you could buy health insurance for under 1,000 a year now they want $18,000 for less coverage! The minimum wage was $3;45 hr and now only $7;25 hr  WOW Wonder why were is such a mess!!!

• Anonymous

  would you feel the same if you needed maine care ? I bet you wouldnt. fortunate one.

• Anonymous

  who needs maine care if you dont have insurance just go to the brewer medical center or pchc if youe need medical car its 5 bucks to see someone and get the care you need. and you can get cheap scripts. great program for the less fortunate . maine care is all for woman and children and the elderly. there are males without kids in there home that need medical care just as much and they just get put on a list. if your gonna have maine care have it for everyone dont discriminate cause he doesnt have a child in the home or he isnt 60 0r older. united we stand haaaaaaaaa haaaaaaaaa. maine.

• Anonymous

  Because a federal mandate to purchase it is unconstitutional.

• Anonymous

  Hey, and while we’re at it, let’s cut the heating oil supply to Blaine manor down to oh, let’s be generous, 2 or 3 days a week at 50 degrees. If that’s not warm enough, that’s just too terribly sad. Let them bundle themselves up in blankets at night and think about just what it might be like to be the working or disabled poor.

• Anonymous

  Got some actual examples of this, or are you just spouting off the party line?

  Other than Roxanne’s Bees, of course…

• Anonymous

  unless they own a house.  If they want to keep the house they will have to live with the illness or just get better naturally like in the old days.

• Anonymous

  They allow Power Drinks, candy, seafood, etc. but no organic bread, fruits, milk, vegetables, etc. We wonder why Mainers have a weight problem, it is so sad that they have to buy fruits and veggies with pesticides, meats with horomone, etc.  The whole food stamp problem, just like Maine Care needs an overhaul.

• Anonymous

  I sure hope when Lepage runs for re-election he has the nads to ask the voters “Are you better off then you were four years ago?” This guy just does not care about people,just because he struggled in life,it seams like he wants every one to feel his pain. I dont get anything from this state but taxes for everything i own and want to do,from smokeing to freshwater fishing you name it were taxed to death and now when your sick,the very state you lived your entire taxed life in has nothing to offer you? go back to Marden paul get real this is not your cheap labor force this is the Public and WE pay the bills

• Anonymous

  Young childless adults, like the ones being treated in Methadone clinics?  How much does that cost per week/adult?  I personally know a woman who has been treated for 8 years with Methadone.  Why would Acadia and other programs WANT to wean this person off, there’s no money in that.  Maybe there needs to be a financial award to these programs who are actually successful, give them an incentive.

• Anonymous

  Mardens

• Anonymous

  And I think I am ok with this because they are most likely our methodone population.  I am sorry, my husband and I work too hard to pay for their health coverage for a drug addiction.  If they can buy their drugs, they can buy their insurance.

• Anonymous

  I think we should drain the water pipes and winterize the Blaine House. Let the LePage family find another place to live. We have all heard our radical right tea party friends calling for belt tightening. I think the Governor should lead by example by tightening his belt. Of course by the looks of it that hasn’t been happening.

• Anonymous

  They are different, but it isn’t only the young singles who will be affected.  Check out Bill Nemitz’s column in today’s Maine Sunday Telegram.  He did a great job of identifying who will be hurt.  You might be surprised at how this will hurt different groups.  If it were just the young without children it wouldn’t be 65,000 people!

• Anonymous

  Really, because you can have insurance from say anthem, and have MaineCare also, which helps pay the copays of the insurance.

• B Brillant

  I don’t believe the problem with the budget  deficit is caused by the political parties, or the people who are in certain income levels. The problem is caused by the abuse of the system by people who are committing fraud and abuse and have been doing it and getting away with it for years. We know people who are selling their food stamps, buying food with them and selling it to other people or returning it to stores for cash back. Some people are wasting their food stamps buying junk food and expensisve foods, throwing good food out, and some clean out their cupboards, frig and freezer when the food stamps come in and replace it with new foods.
   Some of the people are using MaineCare as a means to get meds and other supplies and then sell them to other people, getting their legal supplies of Methadone while still using illegal drugs. Some of the TANIF monies are used to buy drugs, gamble with, supply people with cigarettes, alcohol and drugs, as well as other things. When some of these people are reported, the authorities say they will look into it, but nothing gets done. I was told by a group who works with drug and alcohol addicts that Methadone was only supposed to be a short term few week cure to help get the people off drugs, not as a permanent multiple year on-going fix. Some are still using and are dealing also and getting away with it. Our tax $$$ are paying for it, while most of these people don’t pay taxes. If we drive after taking a pain or other med, we can be picked up for OUI, but they can come out of the Methadone clinic and drive away and get away with it.
   Some people who need help can’t get it, while other people are getting whatever they want. Some people are working and not reporting their income. Gov. LePage should place the blame on what is really causing the deficit!!

• Anonymous

  You claim.  

• OldWench

  Just one trip to the ER per 65,000 people cut will cost more than the money spent on covering those 65,000 Mainers.  When those hospital bills aren’t paid it gets passed along to those who pay for insurance, making premiums go up, which will cost FAR more to tax paying  Mainers than the few cents taken out of their paychecks now.

• OldWench

  Why doesn’t LePage and Maine politicians have to pay for their insurance?  

• OldWench

  In China.

• Anonymous

  Revised for word choice by author.

  If you don’t work and aren’t rich you should be left without medical care, food, shelter, transportation, dignity, quality of life, and life itself. 

  But if you don’t work and don’t contribute anything to America but are rich you should be given tax breaks and respect, dignity, and adulation. 

  Mr. LePage has made it clear that he is going to destroy this state. He doesn’t want to cooperate with the Freedom of Information Act. A law all governors nationwide all have to comply with. He’s proposing budgets that will do nothing positive but will cause catastrophic, statewide job loss, poverty, starvation, freezing to death, unnecessary medical neglect and a downward spiral that will put us just a few notches below the Taliban and Hamas in the eyes of the world. People are judged not only by their own actions but by the actions of their leaders. If you had a Nazi friend would you share that freely without fear of reprisal?

  He should broaden the scope of viable options including increasing taxes on companies that are making big profits, and people who earn a lot of money. If he would work with the rest of us and not just the ideologues of the day he might just set an example the rest of the country decides to follow. I’d even consider forgiving some of his embarrassing moves in the interests good faith and respect for diversity.

• Anonymous

  Exactly. 

• Anonymous

  County guy, people have a hard time differentiating MaineCare from Medicare. To make things more confusing MaineCare is Medicaid (not Medicare). I think you’re attributing widespread confusion for malice and aforethought. I’ve known for over 20 years that every time I talk to anybody about MaineCare, Medicaid, Medicare, and the Maine Health Program that I have to be careful to explain the differences up front as soon as I hear confusion.

  Our governor’s plan for you and all your tater tots up there is for y’all to starve and freeze to death. And if you don’t do that he’s hoping you’ll die from medical neglect. 

  Can’t say that I want to change that. Nope. You’re absolutely right. I have no disagreement to air with you. You just keep on trickling on us.

• Anonymous

  If LePage had to pay for his own insurance he’d go bankrupt. Even with his bloated paycheck paying over $700 per month for himself and then paying for his wife would wipe him out.

• Anonymous

  Revised by author to correct ambiguity.
  During his campaign he told people behind closed doors that if here was elected the first thing he would do is rip the sign, “Maine, the Way Life Should Be” out of the ground and put up a sign that said, “Going Out of Business”. Of course he got misheard by his supporters. They’d have to be delusional or of diminished mental capacity to support him if you think about it. So they made him a sign, “Open for Business”. He had the sign original sign taken down and put with the Labor Mural, but then some of his genius groupies in Maine business, excited to screw Mainers made him a new sign, and the Interstate authority put the new sign up (illegal – just saying).

• Anonymous

  So being a young adult with no children makes you a opiate addict? Being an opiate addict in treatment makes you subhuman? You publish things about people you personally know on the world wide web? Your story is not of a typical young adult that can’t afford healthcare. …

• Anonymous

  If they were called upon in their class to contribute in a way that was fair among them most of them would pony up immediately and be glad for the peace and health it brings to our state, our country, and our communities. Let the IRS deal with the remaining minority as usual.

• Anonymous

  Am I the only one who as finally realized what’s going to have to be done about him?

• Anonymous

  What are you talking about and how do you know this?

• Anonymous

  The money you work so hard for? It goes, 90% of it to stack up on the heaps of money the 1% uber rich in this country already own. Now you know for a fact that all childless people under the age of 65 have a drug addiction and that’s why they don’t buy health insurance? Where do you get your facts? Cite your source.

• Anonymous

  Medicare does not pay for in home services, Mainecare does. You get your facts straight. Now what insurance pays for what. Hopefully you will find yourself with neither and then maybe you’ll see the light when you have a medical need that you can’t afford.

• Jazz11

  Why do the people vote against themselves? The same people who voted for him are the ones getting the hammer brought down on them.

• Anonymous

  Take thier mandate and shove it.

• Anonymous

  Then maybe they need a second job. Why is that so unheard of these days? People need to do what it takes to survive these days.

• Anonymous

  Well worth the money too. Even better was the news footage watching Bagdad blow up.

• Anonymous

  They will not have to live in prisons unless they break the law. Where do you get that BS? If they break the law, then prison is where they belong, and I have no problem paying for it.

• Anonymous

  You’ve made an assertion but given no proof.  Show me data that prove that people with Medicaid use services unnecessarily, while those on Medicare and those who have policies from the for-profit insurance companies do not. Unless you can do so, I’ll believe you’re simply repeating propaganda you’ve picked up somewhere.

• Anonymous

  God forbid the axe should fall on tax breaks for millionaires!

• Anonymous

  Please explain the connection  between your for-profit insurance company’s decision to raise your premiums, and the state providing insurance to people who are extremely poor.

  My theory: your company raised your premiums at least partly to increase the company CEO’s multi-million dollow salary. And another part was the rise of new treatments (which YOU might want someday to save your life) which are expensive.

• Anonymous

  Politicians who are using a divide-and-conquer tactic are hoping to they can trick you into believing only drug addicts (who are in treatment, God forbid!) will be affected by the cuts, so you’ll agree to the cuts cheerfully, and the people will stop clamoring to end tax breaks for billionaires and the other true causes of the country’s fiscal problems.

  Please re-read the article. See the vulnerable people whose lives will be destroyed?

• Anonymous

  Sure, Marden’s and Walmart could start offering health care for their employees, but they won’t. They could also pay their employees a living wage so they can buy their own heating oil, but they won’t. Their employees will continue to get their health care the same way every other American does who works for “public assistance” wages, they will go to the emergency room. It costs five times as much as going to a doctor’s office, but it doesn’t take any money out of WalMart or Marden’s profits, it costs you and I more in insurance premiums. You forgot all the other companies that foist the health care of their employees on the rest of us. Burger King, Kmart, McDonald’s, Target, Best Buy, Wendy’s, Arby’s, Sam’s Club, BJ’s, etc.. These companies stack up billions in profit every year, thanks mostly to the largesse of the American tax payer. Not that they would ever say thank you, but you are welcome.

• Anonymous

  How about doing something about the energy costs of Maine being 31% higher than the national average.  Oops, that’s business isn’t it?

• Anonymous

   LePage blames Democrats for making Medicaid the answer for affordable health insurance?  Since when is private ins. affordable?  Wake up Gov  it’s a business . Private ins companies are in business to make money. 

• Anonymous

  Define wealthy?

• Anonymous

  Nope….3 more years of this clown….sigh.

• Anonymous

  I’m pretty sure I didn’t say all young adults were opiate addicts, that they were subhuman and I really don’t remember anything about African Americans.  My point was that the programs that are supposed to be curing these addictions have no incentive to do so.  Therefor it costs the medicaid program a lot more money.  Money that could be spread around elsewhere.

  And are we supposed to get our opinions approved by you before printing?

• Anonymous

  I like everything you say, until the last line, which brought me to flag your comment.  Violence begets violence, and makes evil stronger.   Someday, the policy of hurting and brutalizing the poor shall be fully exposed for the horrible wrong it is.  Stay in the light.

  It’s not easy, I know. But stay in the light.

• Anonymous

  You should have a conversation with your colleague and ask him if he is doing the right thing. Explain to him what you are doing and ask if we are all in this, doesn’t it make sense to be the right thing by paying his way and let the state use his current benefit funds to help someone without a job,,,,or is disabled?

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_7T3YNF6MG3FPEAVTFIJC44VQUI Dlbrt

  LePage says plan to cut Medicaid tough to share with Mainers

  Lepage Don’t Share!

  Especialy Halloween Candy!

• Anonymous

  It seems to me that LePage has been paying his own living expenses, insurance premiums, plus a healthy amount of tax dollars for most of his 62 years. The governor gets paid a salary plus benefits for his work. It’s a job and should be compensated like any other job. Far from being an “obnoxious fool”, LePage has been an upstanding tax payer and productive citizen of Maine–one of those people who actually pay for those who are unable to pay for themselves.

• Anonymous

  As if he cares !  Mr. Stone of Heart himself. Christmas must be a tough season for him.
  The thought of caring and giving.

• Anonymous

  The other 2 billion is federal money. I’m not sure on the % of match, but last i knew, it was state pays 1/4 and federal pays 3/4 of all Maine Care Medicare funds. So, but cutting what we spend, we cut what the federal government kicks in to match. Hence an overall loss of income for the state through the federal reimbursement match, loss of jobs for medical & related employees, and the income taxes they pay back to the state. ….

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KRFCVCJNGB7CHUXUY4ZJWQRTQI Ole Grizz

  Blaming democrats is not the answer gov. The reason you promotiing these cuts is because one of your ill run departments  came up with a 121 million more renue lost than expected and now you want to cut Medicaid to balance your department budget on the backs of the disabled and needy people of Maine. Thank you gov. Maybe we should all run to Canada and get on their free system like you did when others in Maine like me went and fought for your country. Good thing a democrat Jimmy Carter gave you amesty or you would still be in Canada. Stop trying to balance the books on the poor when you have incompetent people running your departments of human resources….

  Want to be like other states that have their Medicaid in line. Than start hiring the right people to run your departments and start showing some leadership in doing so. You are supposed to be the CEO of Mazine….when you have department heads squandering away Maine’s tax money and come up with 121 million more in debt than it all falls on your shoulders…..correct the department and start taking the blame for hiring people who don’t know what they are doing and leave the diabled and poor alone…they are what got you elected….especially in Aroostook County….

• B Brillant

  Our Medicare and MediGap which is through AARP total over $500 together per month for myself and my husband ( in our mid 60s) which we pay from our Social Security retirement. Some of my meds cost over $30 co-pay which we pay also, MediCare D doesn’t cover some of the costs of necessary meds and some meds are going up to $40 or more.     
    Generic Lipitor is not $10 as told on the TV, but a $34 co-pay as I was charged last week, a couple $$ less than the Lipitor brand name which I have been getting. I checked Hannaford and RiteAid both for the price of generic, as I though there was a mistake, and was told that is the price people are paying for generic Lipitor. So much for the generic going to be a lot cheaper!!!!

• Steve Anderson

  You refuse to raise taxes on those who have more money than they know what to do with, even when thousands can barely get by.

  Then you mock those who are angry that people are going cold and hungry while others have an abundance of wealth, and lay the blame on corruption among the poor that contributes almost nothing to the problem.

  Do you not even realize what you’re doing?

• Anonymous

  I was self-employed for many years, over 25 years, and I bought my own insurance. At times it was a burden but I felt it was my responsibility to have it. I am a single person so it was just for me.

    Over the years I met other business owners that worked the system and had Maine Care for themselves and their families. They told me that I was a fool to be paying for myself when I could get on Maine Care. These people made quite a bit more money than I was making at the time too!

    This is why we need some radical changes in the system. Way too many people scamming the system.

  WAY TO GO Gov. LePage

• Anonymous

  Just our Governor cleaning up another Democratic mess. Go Lepage!

• Briney

  The governor says it was a  ”necessary” cut.  He offers no alternatives.  Others feel the same way.  Anyway, it will keep the ERs busy.  I suppose that is the generally heartless and accepted summation in today’s teapublican society. 

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_7T3YNF6MG3FPEAVTFIJC44VQUI Dlbrt

  LePage says plan to cut Medicaid tough to share with Mainers

  Interesting word,

  Share

  Coming from a Childhood Halloween Thief!

• Briney

  We have to guard against that – or else.  McConnell and Boehner will not extend unemployment benefits and permit a tax cut for the in-between s.  

• Briney

  LePage, like Walker and other teapublican governors  is following the national edict of the tea party: Cut and cut some more.  They’re on the way to creating a Plutocracy. 

• http://www.facebook.com/people/Kathy-Stuart/100000378618564 Kathy Stuart

  Here is an example of how taking care of working Mainers now saves money in the long run:

  My husband had some hip pain and no insurance. (I had lost the insurance through my job due to an illness that left me unable to work) So we saved up the money for him to see the doc. It’s just arthritis the doc says, walk more, take aspirin. Pain continues to get worse. Well the doc says, your not a young man any more, just keep excercising and learn to deal with it. Pain continues to get worse and then the other hip starts to hurt. After a while my husband could barely walk across the dining room and certainly couldn’t work any longer.

  Back to the doc. He says well, we can do some xrays and see what is going on. But we can’t afford the xrays. Well, here are some pain meds, keep excercising. Finally the pain was so bad we had to go in the hole for the xrays, remember, neither of us is working at this time. Doc calls up and says, don’t walk anymore, stay off your feet, you have a rare condition called osteonecrosis. If you keep walking (excercising?) you could break your hip.

  Now by this time the first hip was too far gone to save and could not be replaced at the time because of some bad medicine in the interim.(long story) It was decided that it would be best to go ahead and replace the less damaged hip. Just prior to his surgery, he broke the other hip. He told the doc, doc said no way. So off to the hospital hubby goes. During pre-op, amazingly they find out that his other hip is broken. So they do the hip replacement on the less damaged hip and cobble back together the worst one until such time the bone can be strenghened enough for replacement. (Still no insurance) So then he has two legs that he can’t stand on, no way to do the rehab for the replacement.

  The comedy/tragedy of errors left my husband permantly disabled and us many thousands in the hole for medical bills. Now eventually he got medicaid and didn’t have to worry about the medical expenses any longer. But, if he had medicaid or insurance in the first place we could have gotten the help he needed much sooner, (xrays, referrals, etc.) he would probably still be able to work and wouldn’t be disabled for many years to come.

  That is why it costs less in the long run, all the way across the board, to insure people now instead of later. Later is always more expensive.

• Briney

  Maine should cut its terms for governors.  Two years would be more than enough, once the prospect completes a six-month probationary period.  This man naturally would have failed and could now be savoring beach life in Florida and Jamaica.  I’ll give him his due, though.  There isn’t one  previous governor who can match his title as the worst the state has ever had.

• Anonymous

  Nice photo of windbag leplague.  Looks like he’s ready to “Huff and puff and blow the house down.”
  He’s so filled w/self-importance, it’s sickening.

• Anonymous

  The one important part of your story is to note that when the stitches were put in – this is considered a “global fee” by the insurance company and the hospital……so when your husband goes back to the hospital to have them removed, there is no additional charge.  If he had gone to his primary care, they would have had to charge an additional fee since they didn’t put the stitches in…….I know it’s not ideal, but that is the way it works……..

• Anonymous

  How many do you have?   Oh let me guess   at least 3.

• Anonymous

  If he thinks his plan was “tough to tell” he ought to be on the receiving end of those cuts.  I am disabled and the prospect of losing my coverage terrifies me because if I lose Mainecare, I’ll also lose the assistance to pay Medicare Part B and D- I can’t afford the premiums.  His actions will cause catastrophic harm on the two groups he claims he’s trying to protect.  I guess we’ll have to just wait and see.

• Anonymous

  Makes alot of sense.  Bin Laden attacks the twin towers and he attacks Iraq!?   You don’t suppose his father’s little war didn’t become his own, oil didn’t have anything to do with it?  WMD?   pffffft, they were never there, it was an excuse, he used 9/11 as one as well.   

  Was it well worth all of the injuries and deaths to our soldiers?  To attack a country that had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11?   

• Otis B. Driftwood

  In typical strategy of the republicans, reducing taxes for the high wage earners, creating a reduction in tax revenues, produces their response to cut government programs because spending is out of control.  You’ll never see these politicians put on the table those programs which they favor, or in their estimation are essential.  When the politician wielding the axe, is pompous, closed minded and recently dis appointed in the results of his pet referendum question 1, the slaughter is vicious.  Remember the beatings will continue until moral improves.  Merry Christmas from the Blaine House, to your dirt floor shack.

• Otis B. Driftwood

  Walk down the street naked, you’ll be arrested for indecent exposure.  If you follow the government mandate to wear clothes, you will not be arrested.  Which mandate is unconstitutional, single payer insurance, or wearing clothes.

• Anonymous

  I don’t have statistics to show what you are asking for. But it’s common sense. Most insured persons have what is called a co-pay for services rendered. The insured (not the insurer) typically pays 10 to 30 percent of the cost of most covered services while those on Medicaid don’t pay anything. As an example, a person on Medicaid can have open heart surgery for free. An insured person not on Medicaid typically will has to spend over 10 grand from his own pocket for the same procedure. As an insured person, I typically pay about $30 or more for each visit to my doctor, not to mention charges for the clinic use, prescription costs, ex-rays, lab tests.

  One more thing, you seem to confuse Medicaid and Medicare. The former is intended to serve those below a predefined level of income. The latter serves those who are retired mostly and does not cover the entire cost of health care services. People who participate in Medicare usually buy a supplemental insurance to help cover those costs that their Medicare plan A and B does not fully cover. While I don’t have statistics to back up my prior assertion, I have plenty of anecdotal evidence that abuse is rampant among Medicaid participants. It’s also rampant among veterans whose health care services are fully covered by Uncle Sam. A past effort by former President Bush to have veterans pay just a very small portion (10 to 15 dollars for each doctor’s visit) failed to pass in Congress. It would have saved hundreds of millions in federal tax dollars. As a veteran myself, I can personally attest that many of my fellow veterans are using their services only because they are entirely free of cost to themselves, not because they really need them.

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XYKS6LSPQUWDSK4AHLG7W2NXSA Stephen

  Mainecare has excellent coverage for asthma, COPD, and diabetes. It is wonderful that someone on Mainecare with COPD can spend $400 per month on cigarettes and the state will happily spend $200 per month on their Advair inhlaer, another $200 per month for their Combivent inhaler, and another $150 for their Singulair. Thanks, taxpayers!

• B Brillant

  I have no political party, I vote as I see the need and preference and I see a lot of wrong in what some of the politicians are doing and where they are placing blame. I don’t have a college education or PHD and can see where a lot of fault is, why can’t the politicians see it?? maybe they have blinders on and don’t want to see it?? Who is paying for their food and medical?? Federal & State workers and policitians get a lot more fringe benefits and bigger pensions than most other workers. Try cutting their benefits and it will help the deficit, but they won’t do that. Maybe they should be made to walk in the people’s shoes for a month and live on a regular person’s monthly income!!??
  Happy & Safe Holidays to everyone.

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XYKS6LSPQUWDSK4AHLG7W2NXSA Stephen

  Another concern – couples who receive welfare support, Food Stamps, and Mainecare because the mother is “single” – and yet the boyfriend and often even the father of the children works and is living in the same household as the mom and children. If they got married much of the state aid would cease. The momk simply tells the state that she “doesn’t know who the father is”, and the state pays.  How about offering a $1,000 reward to anyone who turns in people who are defrauding the state this way? I know 90-year olds who live on a $700 per month Social Security check.  THEY need Mainecare to help with the Medicare coverage, and THEY need fuel assistance and Food Stamps, and I am happy for my tax money to help them out. Anyone who truly needs help should be able to get it, but if they are able to support themselves, the help should be for only a short period of time for an emergency situation.

• Anonymous

  We somewhat figured out that bit, but this was not the only time it happened – just the *last* straw we had in dealing with that particular MD.

  We routinely got pushed to the higher-cost ER for ALL sorts of stuff. Earaches, sinus problems.. many of the things that one would expect an internal medicine physician to deal with handily in his office.

  You’d think, right?

  To the final end all of this is moot: A few years later, the job and the insurance coverage went up with the economy in a smoking great hole called “The Collapse of Lehman Brothers”, and since then, we’ve been strictly cash-and-carry for our health… Which has actually been a blessing of sorts as it’s motivated both of us to lose weight, get gym memberships, start to eat as if our health actually depends on it and take much better care of ourselves than we were before.

  Anything that’s going to get me losing weight and keeping it off AS I go through menopause (which is when 90% of women get FAT and see the start of diabetes) is good by me. I’m aiming to be back to my high-school graduation weight by the time I hit 50.

  Barring a single payer system (this mandated serfdom to private insurers that Obama set before us isn’t likely to stand, at the very least if it does, I’ll stop working before I support the profits of insurers and the dividends of their investors. Besides, the QUALITY of the care brokered – 54.9% – isn’t good enough for the cost I’d be expected to pay – but that’s another problem NO ONE, not the insurers OR their mandated ‘customers’ and absolutely NEVER the doctors, will EVER want to acknowledge – they’d sooner gouge out their eyes than wear it..) the rest, as they say, is in God’s hands.

  At a certain point, when the government puts up such horrid plans and the society at large takes its health for granted and not as a responsibility – we DO end up with 75% of ALL medical COST paying for chronic DIET-RELATED illness – and these are the diseases that come because the average American can not or will not take responsibility for the garbage they mindlessly put in their cake-holes.

  At that point where the public is SO irresponsible day in and day out (the sheer numbers of people in need of medical care and the REASONS why they do are proof enough) it actually isn’t bad to have nothing.. no house, no money, no investments – to lose.

• B Brillant

  What happened to the 5 years to get back to work AFDC/TANIF prgram?? I know 1 person with 4 children who our taxes supports, has gone through 5 different educational programs which our taxes paid for to put her to work and after her last child is still not working and living off our taxes and she and her husband are going daily for the past several years to the Methadone clinic for their legal fix. Other people who really need it and can’t work can’t get TANIF. A family of 3 is expected to live on under $900 of SS Disability to pay for rent, heat, lights, phone and transportation to go for medical and shopping and etc.

• Anonymous

  Getting arrested or not, for walking around with your wedding tackle for all the world to see, depends on the LOCAL ordinances against indecency.

  A mandate to enter into a private business deal directly contradicts the Commerce Clause and is another matter entirely, as it involves MONEY.

  (Being *forced* to buy teas from the British was one of the insults the
  Colonists dealt with that got the American Revolution off and running
  and WHY that bit of legislation was written into the Constitution.)

  Remember, what you earn from the sweat of your labors is YOUR money, and now you are FORCED to give it to another *private* individual or entity for THEIR PROFIT – *not* yours – or do you think that the current quality rating of 54.9% for medical care (look up the ratings! – Google is your friend) that is brokered by private insurers represents their best investment of YOUR money for YOUR medical needs?

  Really?

  Cost AND quality ARE connected and the private insurance companies only broker care for you that meets *just* over 50% of quality, and in doing so, they can honestly say more are served than not by their service. It’s ALL locked in, based on statistics and averages and the MD’s and hospitals agree to be ‘in network’ (just try and go out of it if you’ve got a closed – usually budget – policy) and follow procedures based on where the profit curve for stakeholders’ dividends meets the actuarial table for morbidity and mortality.

  Hence ‘Protocol-driven’ health care treatments that, frankly, leave people constantly ill and on the never-ending rotating door through their doctor’s office and in perpetual *fear* of not having insurance.. And the insurers always able to raise rates based on that statistically created, fear-driven *need*.

  What a lovely predatory spiral of terror, isn’t it?

  Aren’t you SO glad you have NO choice to not join in?

• Anonymous

  Many millions of Americans are unemployed, about 4 to 5 times more than there are jobs available. If they cannot get work, they certainly can’t afford insurance.

  In what way would increasing the number of Americans who are not receiving preventive care, and suffering illnesses they can’t afford to treat, improve America?

• Anonymous

  Do you have insurance? If you had fuller insurance coverage would you go to the doctor more often?

  If so, why? Would it be

  1) for the pleasure of sitting around a doctor’s office
  2) because you could get more of your (real) ailments treated without going broke?

• Anonymous

  I asked for data. You offered anecdotes.

• Anonymous

  Why would you be eager to hurt other workers, but apparently not even consider ending tax breaks for billionaires?

• lzrdkng

  I’m sure he shed a tear. He hasn’t cared about the lower class so far, why start now? His little sob story about being homeless, living on the streets?? Yeah, ok! That’s why he is bent on putting more people there by losing businesses and now making them spend what they have managed to save to be healthy. Plus the tax breaks to companies that turn around and spend billions out of state. Go LePage!! Preferably back to Florida…

• Anonymous

  I have (1) and it’s all I need. If I couldn’t make ends meet, I would get another, and have in the past.

• Anonymous

  Have you ever heard about people who chronically complain about their own imagined illnesses or who want every medical test that’s available?

• Anonymous

  You’re assuming that most people who’ve lost their jobs (or who work but can’t afford health insurance premiums)  are hypochondriacs.

• Anonymous

  I’ve revised my post. Good call. In the future if you could just respond to me and let me make the changes instead of complaining about me I’d appreciate it.

• Anonymous

  “Are there no work houses? Are there no prisons? If he is going to die he should do so and decrease the surplus population.” Here’s a link people might find enlightening.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04P4zPzspuI

• Anonymous

  Exactly. We gave him power and now we’re powerless against him. We need a way to remove Demagogues when they prove their true nature if it is destructive to the wellbeing of Maine’s citizenry. 

• Anonymous

  I revised my post to be less scathing. Your post implied that the entire problem was drug addict adults so we should get rid of MaineCare for childless adults altogether because you did not define your scope. I agree with this statement, ”…Programs that are supposed to be curing these addictions have no incentive to do so.  Therefor it costs the medicaid program a lot more money.  Money that could be spread around elsewhere.

• Anonymous

  There may health risks related to “shoving it” so perhaps we can just say we don’t agree with it. Otherwise my insurance premiums might go up again, and quite frankly I can’t afford it.

• Anonymous

  so do you think that all of our problems are the gov fault

• Anonymous

  Your reading too much.

• Anonymous

  Absolutely not. Maine is a small state population wise. We always get a little dose of what’s going on in the rest of the country and we usually aren’t affected by it before states like California, Texas, Florida, and New York. That gives us here in Maine an opportunity to learn from the successes and failures of other states so we are not flying blind.

  We need a way to remove Demagogues when they prove their true nature if it is destructive to the wellbeing of Maine’s citizenry. That’s just a fact. We were working on impeachment based on incompetence and conflicts of interests, but couldn’t find anything in Statute or in the Maine Constitution providing for such a contingency. So there we were with a petition long enough to go to the Moon and back and no legal method of moving it forward. 
  We also don’t have a Lieutenant Governor. The Lieutenant Governor would take over the responsibilities of the Governor should he/she become unable or unwilling to discharge his/her responsibilities competently. The closest thing we have to a Lieutenant Governor at this time is Maine Senate President Kevin Raye. But until LePage is convicted of one of his a felonies we will not be able to remove him, barring resignation or catastrophic incapacitation. 

  Does that answer your question adequately?

• Anonymous

  He’s like a 5 year old who has stolen a car.

• Anonymous

  PMNIs care for people who are relatively independent but can’t successfully live in the community without a little help. PNMIs are the least expensive and simplest ways of supporting these people. They don’t belong in prison and they don’t belong in the mental hospital, and if they had family that could care for them they should live there, but not everyone has anybody to go live with. Bottom line. PNMIs are a very good deal, eliminating funding for them is idiotic because once they close and we realize they were the best deal going we won’t have anywhere for these folks that just need a little help to be independent to live.

• Anonymous

  Right you are. Many well raised Maine young adults won’t think about going to the ER. They’ll just be sick and die, live, or become disabled in most cases. The ones that do go to the ER won’t have continuity of care so their overall health will be nowhere near as good as those with health insurance and they will be one heck of a lot more expensive.

• Anonymous

  People mix the two terms up for obvious reasons. More than half of people don’t know the difference between the two programs, never-mind the workings of each. Maine is planning to stop paying premiums for Medicare Parts B, D, F and I. That will have a huge impact on Medicare recipients for whom MaineCare pays the Medicare premiums.

• Anonymous

  Hey, you’re calling the man Liar? I’m just saying. Now go eat your frozen spuds.

• B Brillant

  Tax breaks for people with higher incomes shouldn’t be allowed, as they are the people who can afford to pay more taxes, not taking it all from low and middle income people. But I don’t expect to see it happen, as the people making the laws are in the higher income brackets and they won’t want to lose any money.
  The politicians, President, VP, Governors and etc should not be allowed to draw pensions that are any different than the other people, it should all be pooled into Social Security and paid out the same as ours. That would help the State and Federal deficits and the Social Security fund that they say is in trouble. It wouldn’t be in trouble, if they hadn’t taken money from it to use for other stuff and then never replaced it. It should never have been touched, as that was supposed to be insurance for people’s old age & disability pensions.

• Anonymous

  Use your brain. Would you bother to go on TV with a personal family issue in those harsh hot lights with everybody watching just to lie for some unknown purpose??

• Anonymous

  LOL Damn you’re funny. I mean that, seriously! How the heck did we get such a stupid governor. It’s mind boggling. If he were timid, unsure, and stupid we probably could make things work, but I’m thinking at this point the only way to get him to do the honorable thing is to wait for July to come and get him a job pushing up daisies. Damn him and damn his father for not having the bolls to snuff him instead of sending him couch surfing.

• Anonymous

  It wouldn’t be much of a sacrifice for most of them. But I seriously think they would get on board with a plan like that and it would put Americans back on the wold map. 

  They put him in office. He should be educated, sent back to talk to them, and do his job. I’m not talking about voluntary girls scout stuff. I mean no mincing of words. He tells these rich criminals he’s in bed with that the people of the State of Maine are valuable and suffering to the point that they need serious help for them. Then he should propose a budget to the Legislature that reflects how the unfortunate and the rest of Maine’s citizenry will be providing for including contributions from for profit companies and extremely high income people.

• Anonymous

  Sniff your left underarm. Now sniff your right underarm. Do you stink? That’s what I thought.

  Ya know, there is a huge separation between the wealthy and the poor in this country and many other countries. You and I are not wealthy. If either of us were we wouldn’t be reading this rag. Get it?

• Anonymous

  Because you are paying for it.

• Anonymous

  I don’t give a rat’s fundament about your hygiene – define wealthy.