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In response to an Oct. 15 opinion column from a Maine legislator about healthcare solutions for Maine, several items repeat neoconservative healthcare suggestions that are often talked about during campaign season, but are rarely made or pursued as legislation. Instead, “let us pursue common-sense solutions” in healthcare is a slogan that resurfaces every election cycle, usually as a way to delay real reform.
Other nations have long recognized that healthcare does not function under so-called market solutions. Whether it’s the provincial system in Canada or national systems in Europe, Taiwan, or Israel, the lesson from experience is clear to me: It makes sense for government to finance universal healthcare while allowing private delivery of services.
Any genuine solution must support a system that reduces complexity, saves money and lives. Yet, as an article titled “Back to the Future: Trump’s History of Promising a Health Plan That Never Comes” reminds us, certain leaders seem incapable of moving beyond hollow promises. I wonder if this is about lack of exposure to different countries’ solutions, imagination, or ideology. Or maybe just money and power. Certain aspects of our political scene cannot seem to describe nor support a system that would save citizens, businesses and the nation money, complexity, frustration and illness.
For the state, we must move past recycled talking points and pursue concrete solutions — like publicly funded universal healthcare. I believe it would stabilize our healthcare system, ensure the health of our people, and, as studies show, is affordable and achievable.
Henk Goorhuis, MD
Auburn
