AUGUSTA — Advocates and health care providers said Monday that Gov. Paul LePage’s plan to divert money from a fund that supports community anti-smoking programs in order to maintain Medicaid reimbursements for primary care physicians is the wrong approach.
The Republican’s proposed budget would cut $10 million a year from the Fund for Healthy Maine, which is made up of tobacco settlement dollars, and helps support 27 coalitions that work to reduce tobacco use and substance abuse and encourage people to be more physically active.
Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Mary Mayhew argues that maintaining higher Medicaid reimbursement rates would be a more effective and targeted way to reduce smoking rates. While Maine spends the 7th most in the country in tobacco cessation efforts, its smoking rate hasn’t changed dramatically over the last decade, she said.
“We strongly believe that supporting doctors and their teams within their primary care practices can make an improved impact on reducing the rate of smoking in Maine and certainly among our MaineCare population.”
But a coalition that’s opposing the governor’s proposed cuts said Monday that these programs have been proven effective. Youth smoking in Maine has declined by 48 percent since the Fund for Healthy Maine was created, the group says.
Dr. Daniel Onion, a primary care physician in Augusta, said that the governor’s plan would “dismantle a crucial part” of Maine’s public health system. He argues that primary care physicians and community programs must work together to tackle health issues, like smoking.
“To cut community programs to fund primary care is like robbing Peter to pay Paul, or really, like killing Peter to pay Paul,” he said.
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