I will always advocate for access to quality home health services for those in need, but Question 1 is a bad idea. It is so unpopular that all four candidates for governor and leaders in both parties agree it is wrong for Maine.
Question 1 would impose a massive $310 million tax increase on thousands of working Maine families and small businesses that cannot afford it. They would pay the highest top tax rate in the country — a higher tax rate than big corporations pay.
Because there is no income or residency requirement to qualify for the program, Maine’s working families and small businesses would be paying higher taxes to fund services for those who have the means to pay for their health care, even millionaires and part-time summer residents, creating wait lists that would delay care for Mainers most in need of help.
Just as troubling, the privacy of patients would be violated when their protected health information would be required to be shared by the program Question 1 would create. This is one reason why all the members of the Home Care and Hospice Alliance of Maine unanimously oppose Question 1, saying it does not appropriately address the important issues facing home-based care and, instead, creates more problems.
For these reasons and more, Question 1 is widely opposed as an all-around bad idea for Maine. A wolf in sheep’s clothing, it must be defeated on Nov. 6.
Kenneth Albert, R.N., president and CEO, Androscoggin Home Healthcare and Hospice, Lewiston
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