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Mainers face a growing healthcare crisis. Not just of rapidly deteriorating infrastructure, but of unaffordability of care and widespread medical debt — an issue sure to grow thanks to the latest insurance rate hikes of up to 24%. A universal health care system could solve this, as Dr. Daniel Bryant explained in a recent column.
But one thing I’d like to expand on is how such a system would alleviate costs from our overtaxed infrastructure, by shifting focus from illness management to preventive care.
With everyone covered and no cost barrier to primary care and regular screenings, illnesses would be detected earlier; but it’s deeper than that. Universal healthcare wouldn’t simply be a replacement of one insurance company with another, but a restructuring of our society with healthcare as a public good that we all invest in, incentivizing us to support programs to improve the health of our community, like health education and outreach. Treating an illness early is cheaper, but having fewer illnesses to treat is even better.
Within the confines of our current system, health is incredibly individualized, like most facets of our lives. It may seem difficult to imagine a world where we are not all fending for ourselves, ignoring our personal health issues until we can’t, and hoping we are not as unfortunate as other members of our community; but this initiative is an important first step to transitioning towards a better social structure, where we uplift each other and grow stronger as a collective by caring for one another.
Mae Brosseau
Orono
