The Maine Sunday Telegram shines a front-page spotlight on a major Maine and national problem (“With no place to go, some patients in Maine are spending months in hospitals,” March 5).
Susan Cameron of Biddeford remains in her bed at Southern Maine Health Care in Biddeford, months after she was admitted for breathing problems in early September. She was finally discharged in mid-February, but hospital officials say Cameron’s situation is far too common in Maine, where beds in long-term care facilities are lacking. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer
The article spells out many reasons why hospitals are overcrowded, but, in my view, the most important one, a law denying appropriate care to people with serious brain disorders, has the effect of filling up hospital emergency rooms and beds and creating more homelessness. Generally, psychiatric patients are better served in community services, with the support of progressive treatment teams.
Passing a new bill, L.D. 445, will save many Maine lives, end the federal discrimination taking place against serious brain disorders since 1965 in Maine and save taxpayers multiple millions. Sen. Joe Baldacci is sponsoring a bill, with the key support of Sen. Richard Bennett and Rep. Ambureen Rana. It directs the Department of Health and Human Services to apply for a waiver for the discriminatory Medicaid limitation on payment to appropriate services.
Tragically, Maine also discriminates by having a waiver for substance abuse but not one for “mental illness.” Both are co-occurring disorders – why the policy inconsistency? End this state government self-imposed horror. Maine’s Legislature should pass L.D. 445. New Hampshire, Vermont and other states get federal funds, not just for inpatient services but also for community services, including progressive treatment team funds.
Everybody should support L.D. 445. Go to the public hearing at 1 p.m. Tuesday in Room 209 of the Cross Building in Augusta, or testify via Zoom in support. The life you save may be your loved one’s.
Joe H. Pickering Jr.
chair, Truth Tear Down this Wall Committee
Bangor
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