Doctors’ group suggests tax increases to pay for MaineCare

Weeza Matthias of Bangor speaks before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Friday, Dec.16, 2011. Matthias, a former family physician who has been sidelined by cancer and now lives on Social Security Disability, tells the members of the committee how she will be adversely affected if Gov. LePage's plan to remove 65,000 Mainers from Medicaid is successful. Buy Photo

By Jackie Farwell, BDN Staff

Posted Dec. 16, 2011, at 5:59 p.m.
Last modified Dec. 18, 2011, at 2:06 p.m.

AUGUSTA, Maine — Public hearings on proposed MaineCare cuts continued into the third day Friday and included a call to resurrect a once-unpopular beverage tax.

Gov. Paul LePage ruled out the possibility of any tax increase at a Thursday press conference, but a representative of the Maine Medical Association urged lawmakers to consider new revenue sources rather than radically restructure the MaineCare health insurance program.

“The real human needs will not go away,” Andrew MacLean, deputy executive vice president of the association, testified before the Appropriations and Health and Human Services committees, according to written testimony. “Costs simply will be shifted elsewhere in state government and in our economy.”

LePage has called for tightening eligibility guidelines, eliminating services and repealing coverage for thousands of recipients to bring MaineCare closer to national averages. He has said his plan is the best way to address an estimated $220 million shortfall in the Department of Health and Human Services budget. MaineCare is the state’s version of the federal Medicaid program.

Efforts to improve health care quality and reform payment systems will take time to generate savings, MacLean said in his testimony. He suggested that the panels in the short term consider increasing the cigarette tax or the tax on beer, wine and liquor, or taxing sugar-sweetened beverages.

In 2008, Maine voters repealed a beverage tax passed by the Legislature to fund the Dirigo Health program.The law would have replaced the program’s funding source with a 1.8 percent surcharge on health insurance claims and a new excise tax on beer, wine, soda and other sugary beverages. Mainers voted overwhelmingly to overturn the law.

MacLean also asked the committees to consider a temporary increase in the sales tax from 5 percent to 6 percent and eliminating or deferring tax breaks enacted as part of the last two-year state budget.

The Maine Medical Association joined hospitals, students, business owners and others for a morning press conference protesting proposed cuts to the Fund for a Healthy Maine. LePage’s proposal slashes more than $25 million from the fund, which allocates money from the landmark 1998 tobacco settlement for smoking and substance abuse prevention programs as well as health initiatives for the young, elderly and disabled.

“When people are healthy, children do better in school, workers are more productive, and businesses can add jobs because health costs are lower,” the coalition said in a press release. “This is why it’s more important than ever that we continue to use the Fund for a Healthy Maine for what it was intended to do: promote good health and prevent costly disease.”

LePage has said his plan makes tough choices to rein in skyrocketing MaineCare enrollment and tackle the reality of dwindling federal reimbursements. An estimated 65,000 recipients would lose coverage under the proposal.

Hundreds of people testified at the hearings over the course of three days, the majority in opposition to the plan, though some speakers favored it.

Weeza Matthias of Bangor, a former physician, testified that the cuts will leave her homeless within two years. She’s in treatment for breast cancer and another chronic disease and said cuts to the Medicare Savings Program, which helps pay for her Medicare premiums, and other assistance will leave her with just $118 a month for food, gas and other needs.

“If I do become homeless, I’ll die,” she said, according to her written testimony. “If I don’t take care of my health and take my medications, I’ll die. This is what you are deciding, not just for me, but for every poor, elderly and disabled person in the state.”

BDN photographer Kevin Bennett contributed to this report.

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

No.
New.
Taxes.
Anonymous

I would think if the doctors really cared about helping people they would all agree on taking less money for their services.
Anonymous

I think adding taxes to products that are unhealthy for us is a good idea.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_5EPWRYOO33ZNIN7H6RC2SSFQJQ little one

how about high taxes on junk food and rich people for single payer health care. How many people really like for profit greedy health insurance anyway.
Anonymous

I am sure they would if they didn’t have to pay such exorbitant medical malpractice insurance because people in this country are sue happy.
Dan Troop

When is someone going to start reporting that the elderly and disabled are not going to be affected by these cuts? Santa’s naughty list is going to be so much bigger this year!
Anonymous

Let’s get at the waste, fraud, and abuse before we raise taxes. I am all for helping the truly needy but I’m sick and tired of seeing my hard earned tax dollars be wasted on an inefficient system and on people ”approved” for services by lying and cheating.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_7T3YNF6MG3FPEAVTFIJC44VQUI Dlbrt

THEY DO!
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_7T3YNF6MG3FPEAVTFIJC44VQUI Dlbrt

Gov. Paul LePage ruled out the possibility of any tax increase at a Thursday press conference

LePage has called for tightening eligibility guidelines, eliminating services and repealing coverage for thousands of recipients

The Average Maine Family got a $134.00 Tax benefit from the Taxes Reduction that Lepage had to fork up to get elected!

Now the joke is on them!
Anonymous

Who is the arbiter of what is “healthy”?
Anonymous

I agree with the sue happy part, I don’t know if they would though but maybe.
Guest

Yes, and student loans for that education.
Anonymous

Good point…some probably would not…and those that went into the profession for the right reasons would. Of course, it would also depend on how they are employed. It would be more iffy for someone who runs a private practice. Someone employed through a hospital etc. may not have a choice over what they make.
Anonymous

Agreed…unfortunately, education is extremely expensive.
Anonymous

At every opportunity that it is suggested to cut spending someone thinks that we should just increase taxes instead. I for one believe it is high time to reduce government back to a zero based budget and weed out all the waste, fraud, duplicate services and functions. Can someone tell me what is wrong with cutting spending versus increasing taxes? Government cannot be everything for everybody and has grown to become an uncontrollable monster.
http://twitter.com/RobKellley Rob Kelley

no, they just double bill those who can pay thier own way to offset it. Hell, they charged me 2 grand for 20 minuutes of their time and a shot of antibiotics in the backside.
Anonymous

You have a good point but I have never heard of an employer that won’t pay you less if you asked them to. Now whether or not the hospital would charge less is a whole new debate.
Anonymous

Huh, I wonder why medical professionals would suggest a tax increase on the poor working person to support a medical program?
Anonymous

I represent a group of taxpayers and I would like to suggest a tax increase on medical professional’s personal income to help the poor, sick, citizens of our state.
Anonymous

No they don’t
Anonymous

Beware of unintended consequences … the support for the congressional ”Doctor fix” which inhibits Obamacare from forcing lower fees on doctors may and won’t get any support from the citizen voters if these doctors continue to attack the taxpayers. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Anonymous

Ya come on Governor. Raise the taxes so the doctors can make more money and retire at 45 instead of 55.
Anonymous

What I meant was that a hospital might pay doctor’s less…whether the doctor wanted to be paid less or not.
Anonymous

Oh absolutely doctors at a hospital get paid less then private practice. I think though their pay won’t get cut if the hospital goes through tough times. What I have seen is they cut other services and other staffs pay first.
Anonymous

It’s called featherbedding.
Anonymous

I will impact the elderly and diabled, better read between the lines and listen to the lies.
Anonymous

Take the tax from the doctor’s salaries…
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_6LTDLSW4TVTH6S4LX7GC5JQ2HY Regina Hosebeast

I think the tax increase proposal would have passed if they would have included a exemption on Allens Coffee Brandy.
Anonymous

If you don’t have health insurance and get sick, the tax payers have to pay for it anyway- so go get health insurance please- search online “Penny Medical” and learn how you can get insurance at discount price.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_6LTDLSW4TVTH6S4LX7GC5JQ2HY Regina Hosebeast

Doctor’s pay an average of $100,000/year for malpractice insurance. When he or she graduates from medical school, they will have an average debt of $156,000. Then they have 4-5 years of residency earning an average of $56,000/year so they must defer their loan payments while the loans are accruing interest. Often, they are at least 40 before they can start their own practice. Add in the cost of the hospitals they are working in and suddenly the costs of healthcare are more easily understood.
Anonymous

Fortunately this time around it’s not Baldacci and the democrats that are running the show. Maybe this time Augusta will face the entitlement monster head on and not sidestep the issue by raising taxes on selected consumer groups that don’t have the ability to protest as loudly, (or the time), as those that are on the receiving end of taxpayer generosity.
Anonymous

We are taxed enough, even at the sales tax level. Not all of us make a 6 didget income and what is wrong with health care taking a cut? It always upsets me when I get a hospital or Dr bill and know that my insurance company has to pay more for the same services that someone with no insurance pays less for. If the Drs. and Hospitals can charge them less for the same service, is this discrimination? When will it stop?
Anonymous

My Dr just went to work for a hospital because of the cost of changing to electronic medical records. His office call prices went up $50. Why?
Anonymous

The doctors and medical community in this state and country make many times the compensation of the average Maine citizen and much more than doctors in most other countrys, yet their performance does not nearly justify it. Much of the reason we pay to much is due to greed and poor management of our health care professionals. Look at the salaries of the local Non-Profits
and ask yourself are they worth it?
Anonymous

I can’t believe that this health care issue goes on and on. There is a simple fix for the entire problem!
1) All the State and Federal Government officials etc. stop getting health care for free, (everyone pays).
2) Insurance companies, doctors, hospitals etc. can only charge based on income level, family or individual.
3) Anyone with bank accounts exceeding $200K, pay at a higher income level for every $100k.
4) Anyone caught reporting faults information looses coverage goes to jail 5 year min.
5) Illegals not covered, deported.
6) Health care problem FIXED!
Knowing how much our Government cares about the poor & needy Americans, I am amazed they haven’t suggested passing a law allowing people who can’t afford health insurance or their medical bills to be put to sleep like cats and dogs.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_66ZAIIT2G52RMJ2WGCIFREBVZ4 Joe

To all Doctors in this so called, “Group”…please feel free to pay more in taxes at anytime to help you sleep at night.
Thank You.
Anonymous

That is where the problem lies..
Anonymous

Where is the incentive for those lower income people to purchase “cheap” insurance when the taxpayer will pick up the tab for their medical care anyways. I agree with you that one should be responsible for their own care(if they can afford it, a lot more can than most think) and lessen the burden on the taxpayers.
Anonymous

Great! In addition to paying for someone’s FREE health care, now you want to increase my taxes to pay for the whole thing. Isn’t that a BIT MUCH?
Anonymous

Stop believing this misinformation that the reason doctors charge so much is because of malpractice insurance, and fear of “frivolous” lawsuits…it’s a garbage argument. Your numbers for malpractice insurance are totally made up.

“Malpractice insurance rates dipped by an average of 4 percent across the country in 2007, according to actuarial research recently presented to the Physician Insurers Association of America. But in primary care specialties, the cost of insurance continued to be one of the highest practice expenses. Family physicians, internists, and pediatricians all paid a median of $12,500 annually for med-mal coverage, based on the survey. Ob/gyns forked over more than four times as much, because of their propensity to be sued. GPs, many of whom are older and phasing out of practice, paid just $7,500.”
Modernmedicine.com
Anonymous

That is certainly true…Penbay laid off nurses the other year.
Anonymous

Why don’t we tax the doctors? They want the tax
Anonymous

I think the doctors are right, we should raise taxes on all medical related income. Tax the doctors first and foremost.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_UKZXJP3MYBRW7P4SCJBIOFUOQI HARLEY MAN

I moved out of Maine due to the high tax burden placed on me by the State; including registering my vehicles, property taxes and income taxes. I could not continue to bear the heavy tax burden by the State of Maine. Bottom line, it is time to live within your means, and this means the State must cut services. I have to do without in order to pay my tax obligations, I cannot support everyone. Its gonna hurt but this country should not have been attempting to do everything for everyone. Its time I took care of me………….For those who can work I suggest you get a job…………
Anonymous

It is actually difficult to sue in Maine – you have to prove to a judge you have a valid case before anything happens. Red herring. Andy MacLean will agree with that, and he knows.
Anonymous

Coming back to the topic of the article–If we would all pay a little more (say a sales tax increase of .5%) the worst-off people in our society would be much better off, and that translates into a happier, better, and in the long run less expensive system. It is less expensive, because emergency room visits are inefficient and heavily burden the taxpayer.

This would also protect the people of Maine from bad luck or accident or vicious swings of the economy.

The less selfish we are in terms of paying for each other’s health, the better off we will all be, on many levels.
Anonymous

how about instead of sending the losers who cheat the system to jail and waste more tax payer money we put them to work. Make them wear a bright pink jump suit that says “I stole your tax dollars” and have them do roadside cleanup, park cleanups, etc. Humiliate them.
Anonymous

As someone who will lose Mainecare benefits under this proposal, I would gladly pay a .5% increase if it meant being able to keep the small assistance I get, which helps pay my Medicare premiums. Without Mainecare I am looking at not being able to stay in my home- it’s just that simple. One thing I don’t underswtand is why healthy, able-bodied parents whould continue to receive Mainecare just because their kids receive it. I’m to be penalized simply because I made the choice to not have children. I also still don’t understand how Gov. LePage can continue to claim that this move is to “protect” the elderly and disabled when this is precisely the group he’s singled out.
Anonymous

I am sick and tired of society forcing its hand into my pocket. I am tired of seeing those on general assistance living better than I am. I work very hard to support my family, its high time others do the same.

I am very much against any more of my money being forcibly taken from me….
Anonymous

Guess what, our Constitution demands that money comes out of your pocket to protect the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. If you have a problem with that, you are anti-Constitution and technically an enemy of the State.

the large majority of people on welfare are innocent sufferers. Why aren’t you upset that Wall Street destroyed the American way in 2008, through unethical practices–and then got bailed out?

Here are some recent Wall Street convictions from that scandal, including scamming veterans:

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/10/26/a-stunning-fall-from-grace-for-a-star-executive/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2048914/Raj-Rajaratnam-convicted-Wall-Streets-biggest-insider-trading-scandal-jailed.html

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/10/05/lawsuit-claims-banks-cheated-veterans-on-mortgage-loan-fees/
Anonymous

Applause!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah at ten thousand dollars an hour in the recovery room.
Anonymous

The taxpayer does not pay for those who don’t have insurance, the people who have insurance do. That’s why health insurance is so high, because of the uninsured.
poormaniac

I would sign an agreement not to sue if the doctor would in turn work for say $25- $35 dollars per hour ! They are overpaid just like the lawyers who sue them! I would gladly pay them their asking price if they actually could cure me instead of feeding me expensive pills to mask my symptoms. There’s another place we could cut health care costs, drugs cost pennies to make and cost us hundreds per month to purchase ! Don’t even say drug research is expensive because I’m sure many drugs that actually work have been hidden in the large drug producing companies in order to keep us buying the ones that don’t. As a working person I’m all in favor of paying a person what he earns and what he’s worth , just hate paying for the same ” repairs ” over and over again. I wouldn’t accept that from my plumber , my carpenter , or my mechanic so why should I accept it from the medical profession get ?
poormaniac

Isn’t that exactly what the tax on tobacco products was supposed to do.
Anonymous

Don’t forget the staff they have to pay for if they’re in private practice
Anonymous

Yes, I think they should, as you say, agree to take less money for their services. In the meantime it would be unwise for the state to raise taxes “by finding other sources of revenue”, a code word for more taxes. Raising taxes will only delay Maine’s recovery from recession and therefore bring in less revenue in taxes for the state in the long run.
Anonymous

You have an excellent point. That’s why we badly need tort reform to prevent all the frivolous malpractice law suits that bring up doctors’ insurance costs.
Anonymous

Great idea, how about these folks that just proposed those tax increases, pay for it exclusively themselves. After all it sounds like an extra tax is pocket change for them…
Anonymous

This is not a good idea. If there are people out there who agree with this they have every right to send in an extra payment. Most people do not want their taxes raised and are having all they can do to cover them as they exist.
Anonymous

Always nice to see a group who could easily pay a bit more in taxes suggest we all do, too…and give it to them.
Anonymous

It works for me!
Anonymous

Spruce, the problem with a little more taxes is that it never ends. A little here, a little there and suddenly you have a big tax. And the more the government takes the less we have in our pocket. With the less money people have the more people that will need help and the more people that need help the more taxes we need to help and sooner or later every person will work so that they can just pay taxes so they can get help.
Anonymous

Its not anti-constitutional, its reading it differently then you. I read it as I pay taxes so that the government will protect my life, my liberty and my pursuit of happiness and you pay them to protect yours.
Anonymous

Doctors’ group suggests tax increases to pay for MaineCare, of course they want an increase…bet hey have not had any pay cuts…..How about the Doctor’s group take a pay cut? You part of the problem…paid too much and services cost too much!
Anonymous

our state legislators have not been doing their jobs, since they helped create the problem they should help pay for the solution. our state legislature should take a pay cut, reduce/end expense accounts, reduce funds for staff, end tax payer funded health care, end retirement benefits.
Anonymous

Sorry, but a right to life means ALL humans have a right to life. Not just you or me, depending on what we can pay. Your interpretation hails back to the time of monarchy and the divine right of kings. It is exactly what our Founders wanted to get away from.

Rights are universal. All people get them.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

So, again, you are taxed to pay to protect EVERYONE’s right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.

A right isn’t something you buy. A right is something we all have, which deserves to be protected.
Anonymous

I’ve been to Canada and other countries that Forbes calls the happiest in the world, Norway and Sweden. These are happier healthier places than America — by far. This isn’t according to me, this is according to Forbes and many other sources, for instance:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/44315.php

So, higher taxes can work and is the fair and ethical and health way to go. Or are we just lazier than Canadians?
Anonymous

then get the legislature to reform the tort laws. this was attempted several times in the past decade when the democrats were in control. they would never let their lawyer friends starve so it never passed.
Anonymous

it is expensive in the non profit schools where everybody owns it and no one cares. how can you afford to pay some of these presidents and deans of the colleges the salaries they get and then let them take a 6 month paid leave of absence to go count titsy flies in south america. some, not all of the colleges way overy pay their teachers.
Anonymous

Even the most high risk specialty, OB/GYN, has never reached a Med Mal premium of 100K/yr anywhere in the US going back as far as 2000-not even in California.

In fact, premiums have even decreased significantly, in some areas, in recent years. They never reached your figure – ever.

In Maine, a Primary Care Physican paid around 10k and an OBGYN around 50k
in 2010. General Surgeons were somewhere in between – around 30k.

http://www.mymedicalmalpracticeinsurance.com/medical-malpractice-insurance-rates.php
Anonymous

thank you – took the words out of mouth and even added a few.
Anonymous

I guess you took my me and you literal. Yes everyone has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and they can pay taxes to have the government to protect their rights just like I pay them to protect mine. I never said you can buy rights, you do have to pay to have them protected by the government.
Anonymous

I a little confused, how is wanting people to work to pay for their own health care make us lazier than Canadians.
Anonymous

Only problem I have with your idea is #3 I would think everyone should pay the same percent no matter what.
Anonymous

Oh, come come Sleepy. If you’ve been in the work force for a few years you know that you are paying less in taxes as a percentage of income than ever before. And you are getting more for it. The problem, therefore, is that this can’t go on forever. In the 60′s and during those wonderful Reagan years we were paying far more in income taxes than we do now (again, as a percentage of income). Bush spent the Clinton surplus, threw out regulation to allow business to totally succumb to it’s inherent greed without oversight. and the scams flourished. We, here among in the pine trees and the rocks, are now paying for it. And we’ve got ourselves a guv’nor who is going to take the easy way out (that’s sarcasm). He is going to cut, not regulate.

LePew needs to do one thing first, before getting out the boning knife: hire hard nosed auditors and investigators, and go after the scammers of the system. The President is doing that big time in the Medicare system, and it’s paying off with enormous gains. Do it here, now ! Then use a surgeon’s scapel on the programs themselves.
Anonymous

Ok, so where in any of those quotes is it stated you have the right to health care, housing, food stamps, etc? I am pretty sure our nations founders would be appalled by the way their words are twisted….

The right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness… Lets break that down just a moment.

“The right to life means that a man has the right to support his life by his own work (on any economic level, as high as his ability will carry him); it does not mean that others must provide him with the necessities of life.”

The right to Liberty, “Freedom, in a political context, means freedom from government coercion. It does not mean freedom from the landlord, or freedom from the employer, or freedom from the laws of nature which do not provide men with automatic prosperity. It means freedom from the coercive power of the state—and nothing else.”

“The Right to the Pursuit of Happiness means man’s right to live for himself, to choose what constitutes his own private, personal, individual happiness and to work for its achievement, so long as he respects the same right in others. It means that Man cannot be forced to devote his life to the happiness of another man nor of any number of other men. It means that the collective cannot decide what is to be the purpose of a man’s existence nor prescribe his choice of happiness.”
Anonymous

I see your point but still feel savings accounts and investments need to be a be calculated in after a certain value. This is excluding primary vehicles and residence.
Anonymous

The only problem with tax raises they seem to include the people who can least afford them,such as smokers and drinkers. We need to tax cookies that every one buys as opposed to something that only a few use.
Anonymous

My point is this, lets say there are two retired couples around the same age and there only income is $2200 a month, Social Security. One couple has little or nothing in the bank for savings and the other couple has $250,000 in the bank for savings. A percentage of everything over the $200,000 should be added to there income. In this case a small percentage of the $50,000 would be added to there income.

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