You may have read about some proposed future cutbacks in MaineCare benefits.

You may not know that the state has already cut benefits to a small, voiceless group of patients. As of October, Maine eliminated health insurance for 500 permanent Maine residents who did not commit fraud and were following program rules. They lost coverage because of their immigration status alone.

These Mainers recently moved here from other countries. Our federal government has recognized them to be legal residents while they wait for processing and paperwork.

Many of these patients have escaped persecution, war and torture. Many of them are trying to become citizens, but are delayed by rules and paperwork, which is especially difficult for the elderly or disabled.

I want you to know about the grandmother who signs her name with an “X” because she was forced to marry at age 12 and cannot read in her own language, let alone in ours.

And about the sweet 70-year-old woman who has been my patient for two years but who doesn’t recognize me or that I am her doctor. And the man who was dragged in the night from his home by police because he supported a candidate of the opposition party; they shocked his ears with a cattle probe and hung him up by his wrists from the ceiling overnight.

These folks are too frightened or ill or poor to protest how we treat them.

That’s why I’m speaking up for them. What we have done is unfair and wrong.

I spend many patient visits explaining to the uninsured how to stand in line to request general assistance from their town or city. This is the only way they can fill the prescriptions I write. By the time they make it through the red tape, they have forgotten how to take their medicine.

Each month, when their blood pressure, antidepressant or diabetes medicine needs to be refilled, I see them again so I can write the same prescription, after which they stand in line at the town hall once again. That, or they don’t come, their condition worsens, and their treatment becomes much more costly. I am frustrated by this very inefficient way to deliver health care.

MaineCare is the least costly and most efficient way for us Mainers to care for our new neighbors.

Its medical director has done a great job of providing a comprehensive list of low-cost and effective drugs to treat patients in real need.

It is an ideal program for this particular group of patients for whom a small investment of effort will produce a large improvement in health.

Our state has cut off medical care to 500 vulnerable neighbors who are in immigration limbo. It’s unfair, it’s wrong, and it’s a stupid way to manage our money.

Alice Chartrand Haines is a family doctor who has worked for several federally qualified health centers in Maine. She lives in Auburn.

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