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LTE: Struggling for Healthcare

April 28, 2014

Struggling for health care

I was saddened after reading an article in the April 21 printing of The Maine Campus about a 21-year-old University of Maine student who is struggling to purchase health care coverage. She is a full-time student who works part time, but doesn’t earn enough to qualify for subsidies through the health care exchange because Maine has yet to accept the federal funds to provide nearly 70,000 low-income Mainers access to health care coverage.

In an effort to reach across party lines, a bill was amended and passed late Thursday that would accept the federal funds and use them to purchase private insurance through the exchange for Mainers who earn less than 100 percent of the federal poverty level. This amendment was modeled after a bill that was passed in New Hampshire last month, and I hope it will have support from both parties here in Maine.

Hard-working, low-income Mainers, including students, need access to health care coverage that could help save their lives. Broadening access to health care coverage would allow them to see a doctor regularly and access preventive services such as pap tests and tobacco cessation aids, also reducing unnecessary emergency room visits. I encourage Maine lawmakers to vote for LD 1578 in the event of a governor’s veto. The lives of nearly 70,000 Mainers are too important to leave on the table.

Deb Scott-Henderson,

American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network volunteer

Seal Cove