A major reason there is difficulty balancing the state budget lies with Medicaid.

Proposals to balance the budget include decreased reimbursement to health care providers. In the case of pharmacies, a mail order option that will start as a voluntary plan and eventually be made mandatory, will be implemented.

The mail order option for prescriptions should not be implemented for a number of reasons.

• Patients receive valuable services from community pharmacists. Taking this amount of business away from Maine pharmacies will force some pharmacies out of business and others to curtail services.

• Mail order can cost more because more medication is wasted when changes are made. This will be very costly because of the price of medication.

• Mail order will cause tens of millions of dollars to flow out of state. The out-of-state company or companies will not pay taxes in Maine. They do not employ the people of Maine. The lost tax revenue, the loss of jobs, and the increase in unemployment must be considered in this decision.

Unless controls are implemented, increased enrollment in Medicaid will increase the costs regardless of reduced reimbursement to providers.

There must be a determination of how much money is available for the program and then cover only those services that can be adequately funded with that amount.

The maintenance of our health care system is in jeopardy unless there is fair and equitable reimbursement to providers of these services. We cannot continue funding all services to all recipients.
Stanley Tetenman, Poland

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