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Maine Lawmakers Tout Single-Payer Healthcare System
AUGUSTA, Maine - Maine lawmakers have passed a resolution calling on President Obama and Congress to establish a single-payer health system that covers everyone.
The Senate passed the nonbinding resolution by a 20-15 vote on Wednesday, a day after the House did the same by a 91-52 vote.
The resolution cites the high costs of the present system and says managed care, health maintenance organizations and other reforms have failed to contain health costs.
The resolution was passed months after a poll of nearly 600 Maine physicians showed a majority in favor of a single payer or "Medicare for all" approach. The survey, conducted in November and December, showed 52 percent in favor and 48 percent against.
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8 Comments so far
Show AllHow about Maine institutes one then shows it off if it works?
Exactly what I was thinking. In Canada, I started with just Saskatchewan, and spread from there.
It requires all kinds of waivers from the Federal Government which the Federal Government has never been willing to grant. Has to do with how Medicaid funds may be used by the states. If a state goes single-payer without proper waivers, they lose Federal funds.
I called the White House a couple weeks ago and told them Obama should simply issue an executive order that such waivers be granted. Politically infeasible? Hell, it might not even require an act of Congress, just a President who isn't in the pocket of corporate interests.
William Rood, patriotic citizen of the world
Every time I see Obama or a member of his cabinet I listen carefully for the words "single payer health care". I've heard it twice---often enough to know they know what it is.
How about a reporter at the next press conference with some guts?
Sure, get Amy Goodman in there.
if we're talking incremental steps, what if the gov't designed and mandated one single claim form for all?
that in itself should produce a measurable drop in the amount wasted on paper shuffling.
Leftist - Yeah, that was the idea for Pat LaMarche's campaign for governor in 2006 except our incumbent governor with no guts, Baldacci, got re-elected. She even had a formula of how we could pay for it without making significant tax increases but nobody took her serious enough, possibly because of the big "G" next to her name (Green Party).
Couldn't they just create two separate systems that perform the exact same way, one that uses medicaid funds and one that doesn't? It's my understanding that the medicaid funding probably wouldn't cover many more people to begin with as it stands. Not that I like separate but equal systems, but, this is how change begins.