Like a lot of states, Maine is facing a serious doctor shortage.
Dr. Alexander Brazalovich, D.O., past president of the Maine Chapter of the College of Osteopathic Family Physicians, noted that “it is not unusual to have a three- to six-month wait if a practice is accepting new patients. A lot of primary care physicians are full.”
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Unfortunately, a new plan to fix Medicare from President Obama will likely make this problem worse.
To rein in Medicare spending, the new health-care law creates a panel known as the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). Fifteen presidential appointees will make recommendations so that Medicare — which has $24 trillion in unfunded obligations — meets yearly spending goals.
To prevent the board from rationing care directly, IPAB was reportedly given very limited authority. But one of the few things that IPAB can do, and likely will do, to lower costs, is reduce Medicare’s doctor reimbursement rates.
But Medicare already pays doctors well below market rates. The American Academy of Family Physicians reports that the number of doctors refusing Medicare patients is at an all-time high, increasing 5 percent from 2004 to 2009.
The government can promise you health coverage in your old age, but it’s meaningless if there are no doctors willing to treat you. I hope our representatives in Washington move swiftly to repeal IPAB.
Dr. Christopher Pezzullo, D.O.
President, Maine Osteopathic Association
Cape Elizabeth
Wind energy has potential to save us lots of gasoline
Your article, “State’s ocean energy potential goes beyond generating power” (June 17), outlines potential economic benefits that clean energy sources like offshore wind can have for Maine.
However, clean energy can do more than just put people back to work. If we harness the wind to power plug-in electric vehicles and replace electricity currently generated by fossil-fuel power plants, Maine can dramatically reduce its fossil-fuel dependence and thereby make our state more sustainable, healthy and secure.
Powering cars with clean and renewable wind power will also be critical to national efforts to get America off imported oil.
According to an Environment Maine report, if President Obama required our cars to average 60 miles per gallon with the help of wind-powered electric vehicles, Mainers could have cut their gasoline consumption by more than 86 million gallons and avoided over 800,000 million metric tons of global warming emissions this summer alone.
The Obama administration has committed to removing barriers to offshore wind and substantially raising fuel economy standards, as soon as this summer.
Mainers need the president to deliver on both fronts, for the sake of our economy, environment, health and security.
Asa Hyde
Field Organizer, Environment Maine
Portland
Military security isn’t only kind there is, or the best
In the United States, security almost always means military security. If we leave Afghanistan, or Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, or Yemen, we will be “insecure.” It is time to rethink what real security is.
Real security is having a home not threatened with foreclosure; having Social Security when you retire; having Medicare when you retire; not fearing bankruptcy if you get sick; not having a huge debt on graduating from college; a good job when you graduate from college.
It is Wall Street regulated so that it can no longer threaten the entire financial system of the world; bees to pollinate our food crops; drinking water that won’t catch on fire because of fracking for natural gas; oceans that are not so acidic that the plankton will die, along with all creatures that feed on the plankton; oceans that will not rise 6 feet in our children’s life times, making many of our coastal cities uninhabitable; a Gulf of Mexico that is safe to swim in and seafood from the Gulf that is safe to eat.
It is temperate weather with few droughts, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, or fires; life on Earth safe from a nuclear accident; food safe from pathogens and dangerous chemicals; safe products not made with dangerous chemicals.
Our “defense” budget does not exist in a vacuum; Money that goes to our military is money that we do not spend on other forms of security like the ones above.
We need to rethink what “defense” really means.
Jane McCloskey
Deer Isle
Democrats did support many tax cuts in budget
I am a Democratic state representative and I agree with many of the state budget’s tax cuts. I believe in tax cuts that help middle- to low-income families and tax cuts that stimulate our economy.
What I don’t agree with is wholesale cuts to our social safety net that hurt real Maine people. The budget that the bipartisan Appropriations Committee engineered was nothing short of miraculous.
They took a “slash and burn” budget and found bipartisan, unanimous compromise. The hours of effort, time, patience and compassion that went into this budget was extraordinary.
I urge M.D. Harmon to refrain from painting with one large partisan brush (“Democrats really didn’t want LePage’s tax cuts,” June 17) when he describes what I consider a historic budget compromise.
Each side had to give a little to get a little. The chairmen and minority leaders maintained a sense of respect throughout the process and it worked. I am proud to be a member of the Democratic caucus, but I am even more proud of being a member of the Maine House of Representatives working for all Mainers.
Rep. Anne P. Graham
D-North Yarmouth
No ifs, ands or butts: Help make Portland cleaner city
I would like to address the issue of cigarette butts thrown all over the streets of Portland.
Not only is it littering, which is against the law, it is an eyesore. It’s no different than throwing anything else on the ground.
I don’t know if anything can be done about this, but maybe if you publish this letter at least some people will think twice and take some responsibility for their actions. Let’s clean up our act, folks.
Scott R. Walls
Portland
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