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William Owens is a doctor from Cape Elizabeth.
I have been practicing medicine in Maine since 1976. It was a year that changed my life — the year I began caring for patients in this state. It also happens to be the year Hannah Pingree was born. Nearly 50 years later, our paths connect over something fundamental: a shared belief that access to health care is a basic right, and that Maine can do better.
Over the decades, I’ve seen extraordinary advances in medicine. We can treat illnesses today that once were untreatable. We can manage chronic conditions more effectively. Technology and knowledge have transformed what is possible.
But I have also seen a troubling truth: access to affordable care has not kept pace. It is harder than ever to find a primary care doctor. Appointments are delayed. Costs are rising. Families struggle to get the care they need. And too often, people fall through the cracks.
I see the consequences every day in the emergency room.
Emergency rooms are meant for true emergencies: heart attacks, strokes, severe injuries, life-threatening illness. But more and more, our ERs are filled with people who came because they had nowhere else to go.
They couldn’t find a primary care doctor. They couldn’t get an appointment for weeks or months. They were worried about the cost.
So what should have been treated in a clinic becomes a crisis in the ER.
This is hard on patients, hard on families, and incredibly hard on nurses, doctors, and staff. Emergency rooms are not designed to be the front door of the health care system, and yet they are forced to be. Wait times grow. Ambulances get backed up. Providers burn out. And people with real emergencies sometimes wait too long.
After nearly 50 years in medicine, I can tell you the solution is not more emergency room care.
We need strong, accessible primary and preventive care. That is how we catch problems early. That is how we manage chronic disease. That is how we keep people healthy and out of the ER. And that is how we support the health care workers who care for us all.
That is why I am supporting Hannah Pingree.
Hannah focuses on the real, practical problems patients and providers face every day. She listens to the people in the system and the people who rely on it. And she is willing to take on a system that too often puts corporate interests ahead of patients and communities.
Her health care plan addresses what those of us on the front lines know is necessary: expand primary care, grow and support the workforce, make care more affordable, and prevent families from waiting until a crisis before seeking help.
As a doctor, and as someone who trains future physicians, I want a system that works. A system that keeps people healthy. A system that supports the workforce. A system that allows emergency rooms to do what they were meant to do.
Hannah is ready to lead that work.
I believe she understands the urgency. She understands the human impact on families and health care workers. She has the resolve to make sure Maine does not accept a system where the ER is the only place people can turn.
Thinking back to 1976, I never imagined I would still be practicing medicine nearly 50 years later. But I am. Because I believe in this work and in Maine. Our patients deserve better. Our health care workers deserve better. Our communities deserve better.
I believe Hannah Pingree is the leader to make that better future a reality. I am proud to support her.
