Consider this in the news today. The hospital in Lincoln Maine is laying off MORE people. Full time hospital workers. Lincoln Maine lies about 40 minutes north of Bangor on I-95. Lincoln has a population of 5000, Bangor between 25 and 30,000
Hospital CEO Gary Poquette said other negative factors contributed to the hospital’s need to trim its 210-member staff: A declining population in the Lincoln region, the state’s failure to expand Medicaid coverage, a reduction from 100 percent to 65 percent in state payments of Medicare bad debts, and an increase in the number of high-deductible health insurance plans. The loss of an estimated 937 jobs from the closing of the Lincoln and Old Town paper mills late last year is another factor, he said.
Now, 937/5000 = BIG TROUBLE. That ONE EVENT took out almost 20 of the population. People who are sick and think/worry one day they might need immediate help see this story in the Bangor Daily News. It’s a lead story. 30 minutes high speed in an ambulance. Maine is one of the 13 states with more people on government aid than workers. One of the 2 Republican caucus sites in Penobscot county is in Lincoln. Many of the people there (and near me) live on land that has been in their family for MORE THAN 3 GENERATIONS. They are watching their kids leave to survive economically. How serious is this? Maine has the HIGHEST median age in the nation. This means the hospital in Lincoln should be in a growth industry. Instead the tidal wave of economic suction is draining life away. Is there any wonder why a successful businessman EVEN like Paul Lepage has been elected twice to try and change directions up here? Which candidate offers the best chance to bring back the economy of Lincoln, small as that might be? Is there a question as to WHY Paul LePage did what he did? Does anyone doubt what the single dominant issue will be in caucases up here? There are NO polls to speak of up here, so this will be interesting. And by the way, how many people reading this realized that their state has to make up Medicare bad debts? How many other hospitals have seen less traffic or bad debts due to high deductibles in the Obamacare mandate?
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