To the editor:
Shifting budget woes to the most vulnerable populations will result in a devastating blow to Maine’s low income seniors and Maine taxpayers. When people are hungry and cold, medicine to treat chronic diseases will always come last. Survival struggles such as these will force the most vulnerable of populations to eat and stay warm rather than spend money on medicine.
The results of the elderly going without medicine may not be seen for months or years. Maine’s elderly health will decline and Maine’s hospitals, clinics, nursing and boarding homes will become full of seniors with treatable diseases and preventable complications.
Providing a clinic in the most rural area of Maine to help elderly residents age in place has been my personal goal. Without this benefit, I fear the population I have diligently worked with to provide primary health care will be forced to move away from their homes and family and into residential and nursing facilities.
The short-sighted decision to remove the drug benefits from low income seniors will not only be devastating to the health of the patients at my clinic in Allagash but to all low income seniors in Maine. The high financial costs of untreated disease will ultimately shift to all of Maine’s taxpayers.
Medicine to treat chronic disease for low income seniors should always come first. These patients are the same people who worked their lifetimes in Maine and I believe they deserve the best healthcare and the necessary medicines.
Paula Carson Charette,
FNP-C
Allagash
