LIVE BLOG on LD 1397

by: Tony Zeli
Tue May 03, 2011 at 12:06:25 PM EDT

LD 1397 will make health care a human right for all Maine residents by establishing a single-payer health care system for the state. This bill would provide universal coverage through a unified, publicly-funded system. The recent passage of Vermont's pathway to single-payer demonstrates that states can and will act to ensure that their residents have the right to quality, affordable health care.
If you're in the Augusta area it is not too late to come testify before the Insurance and Financial Services Committee in Room 220 of the Cross Office Building across from the State House.

We're just about to get started and testifiers are rolling in at a steady pace. I've spoken with activists from MPA, doctors with PNHP, nurses, organizers from Maine AllCare and the Labor movement, activists from the Maine Green Party, Democratic legislators, and the bill's sponsor Rep. Charlie Priest looks ready to go. I look forward to hearing all the personal stories. I imagine some testimony will be difficult to hear, because of the state of our current, fragmented, for-profit health care system.

Now we just have to wait for the committee to arrive...

While waiting for the hearing to begin, I just got word of some good news out of Vermont! After days of mobilization, protests and vigils by the Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign (www.workerscenter.org), Vermont legislators agreed to remove from the universal health care bill a harmful amendment that would have excluded undocumented people from "universal" health care. This means that every all people of Vermont will receive the health care they deserve.

Standing room only now...

Senator Rod Whittemore (Farifield) is bringing the hearing to a start.

Representative Charlie Priest (Brunswick), LD 1397's lead sponsor is presenting his bill. Beginning with the bold statement that health care is a human right, Rep. Priest went on to discuss how the free market has failed to provide health care to all Maine people. According to Priest, health care costs are growing at twice the rate of inflation. The Affordable Care Act will provide some relief for the states, but it does not control health care costs. It is time for single-payer and it has to be on a state by state basis. Rep. Priest went on to describe his bill which would create a Maine Health Care Agency to provide "essential" benefits to all Maine people. He believes that by 2017 this bill will be passed by the people, because they will have seen that nothing else has worked. He went on to discuss the reforms happening in Vermont. Apparently the good Representative has dumbfounded the committee which had no questions for him.

The Chair asked who would be testifying on this bill and a room full of hands went up. We may be here for a little while...

Rep Ben Chipman (Portland) has surprised us by coming to support the bill. Not a cosponsor of the bill, Rep. Chipman wanted to show his support. He discussed his own experience of fighting for Dirigo Health when he himself was uninsured. "We will never be able to afford to insure the uninsured until we are willing to legislate cost control at the state level." He spoke about how he is still uninsured and that it is time to cover everybody and get the costs of health care under control! He inspired applause that were politely stopped by Chair Whittemore.

Co-sponsor Rep, Seth Berry's (Bowdoinham) testimony was full of facts and figures on the current problems and the feasibility of single-payer. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office has stated as early as 1993 that all Americans could be covered with universal coverage without spending a single dollar more than we currently do. "Universal coverage is a moral must. And single payer is the economic must to achieve universal coverage," declared Rep. Berry.

Other facts from Rep. Berry's testimony included the tragedy of uninsured children who have needlessly died. In fact, 17000 hospital deaths of children could have been prevented in America treated health care as a human right (John Hopkins University). He concluded by comparing the fight for single-payer to the fight for universal education that started public education in this country.

"Tickering around the edges may help marginally, but Maine needs to stop tickering. We need single-payer. It costs less." -Rep. Berry

Dr. Julie Pease was next to testify. She discussed her experience as a practicing physician in New Zealand. She compared to her experience here in Maine, where she s more and more time dealing with paper work and less and less time on patient care. Dr. Pease had 1/10 the amount of paper work in New Zealand. She talked about how services were more integrated because of universal coverage, she could see less patients in a day and spend more time with them.

The next testifier asked the Committee who they thought the most popular Canadian was. Rep. Goode (Bangor) called out Wayne Gretzky. Close, but he was number 10 in the poll. No, the most popular Canadian was Tommy Douglas who introduced single-payer in Canada.

In tear filled testimony from the an owner of a bagel business discussed her and her husband's difficulty with health insurance as small business owners. When her husband had heart trouble they were hit with over $75,000 in bills, most of which their health insurance would not pay for. She told the committee that she was unable to provide health care to her employees, though she would if she could afford it. She concluded by stating that the profit motive does not work in the health care system.

We're going on to about a hour of testimony and still lots to go. We've heard from nurse practitioners, doctors, and small business owners... We will now hear some testimony against before returning to testimony in support.

No opposed testimony! We're back to those testifying in favor with testimony from a MPA activist.

One testifier discussed what it is like to try to afford health insurance as an individual. With a $15000 deductible she is understandably afraid. Rep. Brannigan (Portland) thanked her for her testimony declaring that she nailed the problems of the current system.

Alice Knapp, a solo practicing lawyer, testified about how the boon that single-payer would be for the economy. She also discussed how uninsured people do die for lack of access to care. Sure, if you need emergency or urgent care, the hospital will stabilized you. But if you have a cancerous tumor that might kill you some day, they aren't going to send you home with thousands of dollars of medication and ask you back for chemo. People do die for lack of access to care, and says Alice, that is "Not okay."

Claire Mortimer, a nurse practitioner from Blue Hill, talked about how 2/3's of bankruptcies are due to medical bills. echoed the human right message that has become a theme of the hearings.

Consumers for Affordable Health Care spoke in favor of the bill. Stating that it will help continue the work of the ACA, and get us to the goal of universal coverage. Rep. Goode asked a question. Referring to the Chamber of Commerce's written testimony against the bill, which declared that single-payer was in conflict with the ACA. He was curious if that was the case and if there wasn't a way to implement single-payer through the ACA. Perhaps we should look to the example in Vermont, where they have passed a pathway to single-payer using the health care exchange model created by the ACA.

We are now into the second hour of testimony. We've just heard from a person who was unemployed and as such uninsured. He argued that it was time to decouple health care from employment. We heard from a town employee from Sanford, who spoke about experiencing health care in Canada, when her husband was stationed there in the 1970's. She said that the propaganda we hear about long waits were completely unfounded. Then we heard from John Newton from the AFL-CIO. Labor supports single-payer because all people deserve equal access to health care.

And now it is time for the opponents...

Dan Bernier of the Maine Insurance Association argued that we had the most humane system in the world. There were scattered titters through the room. He went on to claim that sick people would come to Maine from around the nation for free health care and bankrupt our system. Finally he declared that health care is not a right. Then he rushed from the room. Well, thank you insurance industry for caring.

No one else testified against this legislation.

So that was the hearing on LD 1397. It is true that it is not likely that this bill will pass. Not this year. But I for one am excited by the turnout at this hearing. There are a lot of passionate people who are not going to give up on this. There are legislators who are brave enough to support what we all believe is right. I think of this as just the beginning. People fight for their rights. The right to health care will be no difference. So Maine, are you ready?