To the editor:
Please urge legislators to pass LD 1, a bill to assure protections of the Affordable Health Care Act will continue. And then urge them to move with all haste to write and pass Medicaid for All legislation. Medicare for All is not enough.
My recent two-day hospital stay verifies the complaint I read in an Ellsworth American letter to the editor about the “downward spiral” of health care. One imported temporary nurse was sarcastic and worse than no nurse. Told I was not to get up without help, when I called, he told me to unplug the IV and go by myself.
Now the bills are coming in. Charges from the hospital totaling over $22,610 don’t match statements from my Medicare Advantage plan, and they make the EpiPen scandal look puny: over $5,000 for pain management, room charges totaling over $10,000, surgical services do not include surgeon payment and total over $2,000, other smaller charges.
I could write reams about witnessing the downward spiral in quality of care since for-profit corporations took over our healthcare system. It is way past time to stop commercializing health care and move to a nonprofit system that rewards quality of patient care, accessibility and affordability
Alice Bolstridge
Presque Isle
