Susan Collins supported cuts to Medicaid so she and rich friends can have more tax cuts but Maine maternity care is harmed by her vote

The continuing closure of Maine’s rural maternity wards makes me wish there was someone I could grab by the collar and shake a little and go, “This is why we shouldn’t be treating healthcare as a consumer good instead of a public investment for a functional, healthy society!”

Maine’s rural maternity wards require a mindset shift, by Victoria Hugo-Vidal

All three candidates for Maine governor said that rural maternity closures are something that they’re going to work on. But what’s their plan❓ 

Echo opinion published in the Portland Press Herald, Maine.

I would have to shake an awful lot of collars❗

The reason rural hospitals keep closing down maternity wards is money. 💰💸💲America doesn’t think of healthcare as a right, or a social investment. 

Rather, healthcare is treated like a consumer good, like any other, so if the market won’t support its presence, businesses stop offering it.

Healthcare providers need to make money in order to keep their doors open. Even nonprofits like MaineHealth, which don’t need to worry about a rate of return for investors expecting profit, need to at least break even to continue providing those services (and those suspiciously beefy executive salaries, of course).

Pretty much everyone agreed that having maternity care and birthing hospitals in rural areas is important for the health and safety of mothers and babies, as well as for the community in general.

As one of the protesters against the closure of Miles Hospital’s maternity ward in Damariscotta pointed out, “What happens if you can’t be born in a community, you can only die there❓”

But what’s the solution❓ MaineHealth magics up more money❓ Maybe "robs Peter to pay Paul" and cuts services elsewhere in the system? The population of Lincoln County isn’t going to suddenly and immediately explode to the point where a fee-for-service birth center model is viable.

All three candidates for governor have said that rural maternity closures are something that they’re going to work on and stop from happening, but what’s their plan❓

I mean, all Republicans know how to do when there’s a problem is cut taxes, 🙄😬💥which isn’t going to help in this situation. Democrats are probably more interested in directly helping by subsiding a hospital, but for how long❓ How much❓

(Maine Senator Susan Collins supported cuts to Medicaid❗)

Our system isn’t set up for ongoing state subsidy through direct payments like that. Plus, there are a ton of competing budget commands and local moms don’t have a small army of well-paid lobbyists to prowl the halls of the State House. And then you’d get people complaining that they shouldn’t have to pay for maternity care if they can’t get pregnant.

I don’t think the reason we don’t have a universal healthcare system in America is the concept of “Ooh, government healthcare scary.” 

Although some people think that way, but we already have examples of both government-run direct healthcare — the VA — and government- provided health insurance programs, in Medicare and Medicaid. Those programs could certainly use some improvement, but they are very much present and functional and the citizens who benefit are generally satisfied.

No, the reason we don’t have it is because Americans are obsessed with this idea of “deserving.” We don’t want “OUR” taxes paying for “THEIR” healthcare. Who “they” are changes from person to person, of course. (Meanwhile, the sad truth is your taxes are mostly going to defense contractors’ accounts.) 
Think about roads, right❓ A long time ago American leaders all decided that in order for us to have a healthy, thriving society and economy, we needed roads connecting us, from dirt paths to superhighways. So, we made it happen, and everyone contributes, and everyone can use the roads.

You don’t have a subscription to roads through your employer. You don’t get road access on a marketplace. You can still drive on them if you’re poor. They’re funded by our taxes (including, yes, tolls). People don’t get mad that other people they don’t like, or who have made choices they disapprove of, get to use the roads. (Well, other than the usual road rage.) And yes, I know that lots roads are terribly maintained; my family used to play “Buxton Slalom” with potholes in our hometown. This isn’t my most perfect metaphor.

The problem is not just electing politicians who are willing to put in the work to build us a universal healthcare system, although of course we have to do that too. We have to change our view of what healthcare is for. Is it for profit generation, or is it a social good❓

If it’s a social good that we need for a functioning society, can we come to terms with the fact that, yes, “your” taxes may be paying for services that you don’t directly benefit from because our society as a whole would really benefit from having that health system.

Until then, rural facilities are just going to keep shutting down, no matter how important they are to their communities, no matter how many lives are at stake.