Under the Feb. 25 opinion page headline “Maine needs to find a way to preserve health care,” Mary Capobianco listed problems she has experienced personally or identified in Maine’s health care system, including shortage of equipment and technicians, scheduling and reporting delays, hospital and birthing center closures, shrinking numbers of OB/GYN doctors, threatened reductions in MaineCare funding, rising costs and reduced services, especially in rural areas. Many of us, I’m sure, could add to this list (medical debt, job lock, inadequate primary care, etc.) and I, for one, second her conclusion urging “state legislators to find ways to fund these services for the benefit of health care in our state.”

As it so happens, a way to do that, and more, is soon to be introduced in the Legislature, in the form of Legislative Request 1436, An Act to Create and Establish the All Maine Health Program. This program would create a publicly financed, still publicly and privately provided, universal health care system in the state. It would replace current, often obscure and regressive funding of health care with a simpler, transparent, income-based payment system; enable overview of problems like those Ms. Capoblanco highlights and others; and, most importantly, coordinate solutions to them.

Those interested in this kind of comprehensive approach can contact Maine AllCare (maineallcare.org or [email protected]) and contact their legislators.

Daniel Bryant, Cape Elizabeth