RUMFORD — The River Valley chapter of Maine AllCare will present free viewings of “The Healthcare Movie” at 4 and 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 17, at the Rumford Public Library.

The film is sponsored by Maine AllCare, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that promotes quality, affordable health care for all Maine people.

The 65-minute documentary tells the real story about health care systems in Canada and the United States, and how they evolved to be so different. Most people under the age of 50, in both countries, are not aware of the intensity of the political struggle that led to the universal medical system in Canada. Nor are they aware of the public relations campaigns, still active today, that have been prevalent in the United States since the early 1900s to dissuade the public from supporting national health care.

The film shows how it happened that Canada’s Medicare system, after a bumpy start in one province, expanded to include all provinces in a tax-supported universal medical plan.

There appears to be increasing interest in Maine for a health care plan that ensures all Maine citizens access to the medical care they need. A survey of physicians at the annual meeting of the Maine Medical Association resulted in 64 percent of MMA physicians favoring a patient-care, single-payer approach rather than trying to improve our current profit-oriented system.

Also, discussion of the desirability of switching to a single-payer health care system for people of Maine was conducted by Maine AllCare Board members Philip Caper, M.D., Sen. Geoff Gratwick, M.D. and Rep. Charles Priest under the auspices of the Senior Section of the Maine Medical Association in August 2014 at the association’s headquarters in Manchester. About 50 physicians attended, the largest turnout in the history of the Senior Section programs.

For more information, Joe Sirois may be contacted at 364-3913 or by email at [email protected].