I truly believe that affordable health care is a given for everyone in this state. The question is, who pays for it?

The state government is disingenuous with its answers.

Families who are paying for health insurance will subsidize Dirigo Health in the form of higher premiums.

There is a solution. It would be fair and hard, and it will work. But nobody in Augusta has the courage to initialize it.

The weight of the Dirigo program should not fall on the backs of premium payers, employers, hospitals, health care workers and people who actually do pay taxes.

The Dirigo plan needs to be fairly funded.

Every person who is working, whether it is at minimum wage or better, who is not paying into to a health insurance plan should be paying into the Dirigo plan through a weekly payroll deduction.

If everyone contributes to a system that provides them with health care, there will be enough money available to adequately fund it. And it will have broad support with the public.

Individuals who are already paying for their own health insurance should not have an additional tax levied on their paycheck as the cost of the uninsured has already been passed on in the form of higher premiums.

I, like many other working class people in this state, have grown tired of funding more and more entitlement programs for people who are asked to contribute nothing toward their own well-being.

Where’s the fair play?

John Wheeler, Bethel