“I became a volunteer ACA Navigator in 2014 and have worked with hundreds of people in the Blue Hill Peninsula over the past six years. It has been a privilege to do this and a great satisfaction to help people obtain health care coverage. However, I am acutely aware that the ACA is moving farther away from its goal of providing universal, affordable health care. More than...
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Maine playwright facing traumatic brain injury, and out-of-control medical bills
In April 2018, Callie Kimball suffered a devastating head injury in a freak accident. Fortunately, she is recovering. Unfortunately, she has had to create a GoFundMe page due in large part to medical bills. She writes: “I hate that we live in a country where fundraising for medical bills is so normalized, and I resisted doing this for as long as I could, but here’s the thing,...
Continue readingMy child’s depression swallowed her whole. I took the steps to get her help. Then the bills came.
Even when someone with good insurance is a skilled navigator of our complex and dysfunctional healthcare system, she can be overwhelmed by the stresses and costs that accrue when finding and receiving care for serious illnesses. This powerful story by Suzanne Carver articulates some of the problems associated our healthcare system, problems that would be eliminated with a single publicly funded healthcare plan for all. My child’s...
Continue readingMaine has 1,329,608 reasons for universal health care
Reason #1 “When I talk about health care I often tell people that I am retired from the U.S. Navy with 28 years of service. I don’t do that so that people will thank me for my service. My country has thanked me by providing my wife and me with health care insurance for the rest of our lives. I believe that the mill worker is serving...
Continue readingSick Inside Our Broken Health System with that Old Familiar Terror in My Gut
by Donna Smith I stepped up to the appointment check-in desk last Thursday as I prepared to have the CT scans needed to find out what the heck is going on with my body. Many know I have been ill off and on since the day after Christmas, and I spent a week in the hospital after becoming so ill that dehydration was taking a toll on...
Continue readingWhat’s happening to our medical system?
Dear Editor: A small saga of the elusive eye drops. I went to the drugstore to renew my prescription of my eye drops, which I use for glaucoma. The pharmacy informed me that they weren’t able to be renewed yet. I asked why and they told me that the insurance company refused to fill it until next week. The folks there at Hannaford were as helpful as...
Continue readingStruggling to Serve at the Nation’s Richest University
By Rosa Ines Rivera October 24, 2016 in The New York Times Editor’s note: This letter exemplifies why Maine AllCare is fighting for universal, publicly funded health care here in Maine, and nationally. Please join our work by contacting a Chapter near you. Cambridge, Mass. — I’ve been at Harvard University for 17 years, but I’ve never been in a classroom here. I’m a cook in the dining halls. I work...
Continue readingI had health insurance and they didn’t . . .
Editor’s Note: Maine State Senator Troy Jackson speaking to the Legislature on May 20, 2013; the crux of the speech is his personal story about a young friend and fellow lumberman who died for lack of health insurance. It is a simple and heartfelt argument for universal access to health care by everyone in Maine, regardless of age, gender, employment or ability to pay. Please watch this legislator/workingman’s...
Continue readingWhy we need universal health care in Maine
July 30, 2014 As we celebrate the 49th anniversary of MEDICARE – over 49 million Americans are Medicare beneficiaries (2012), including 276,467 here in Maine – let us redouble our efforts in words and deeds in educating our fellow Mainers about the crying need for and common sense benefits of universal access to health care by everyone in our state. Here are two brief 3-minute videos worth seeing. We...
Continue reading“Stroke Recovery from a Family Perspective”
Originally presented at the 7th Annual Stroke Conference in Portland, Maine on May 21, 2014 I want to talk about your patients, the people in the shadows, out of the light, on the verge of darkness, those in the penumbra of life, a shadow of their former selves, even for a short time. And I want to talk about their families. When I was a child, the...
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