Editor’s note: This is the second of three articles on a legislative candidates forum held at the University of Maine at Farmington on Wednesday. The second question posed to the candidates was: Are you for or against MaineCare? Please explain why.

FARMINGTON — When local legislative candidates met at a forum organized by the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce at the University of Maine at Farmington on Wednesday, they tackled three questions — one of which was their views on expanding MaineCare.

Joanne Dunlap of Rangeley, a Democrat running for Senate District 17, said she was for expansion.

“I think we made a mistake not doing it in the beginning,” she said.

Dunlap said the federal government had offered to fund 90 percent of MaineCare, but many Republicans and Gov. Paul LePage were against it.

“I think the job of the state is to provide for its citizens,” she said. “We spend a lot of time providing for corporations.”

Sen. Tom Saviello, R-Wilton, candidate for District 17, said he sponsored a bill that would have expanded MaineCare.

“My mother always told me there were people worse off than we were,” he said. “We already pay for it. It’s a tax. The hospital is having uncompensated costs and you and I are eating them every day.”

He said the bill he sponsored, LD 633, would have provided jobs and brought $400 million into Maine.

“We need a single-payer plan,” said Democrat Guy Iverson of Chesterville, who is running for House District 114. “People should not make a profit off you and I being sick.”

His opponent, Rep. Russell Black, R-Wilton, said the MaineCare vote during the last legislative session was one of the toughest votes he’s taken in his six years in Augusta.

“There is a cost with this bill, but we’re going to receive a lot more from the federal government,” he said. 

Black said Franklin Memorial Hospital was losing close to $2 million per year in charity care, and area health centers were also losing money.

After considerable study, Black said he voted for the bill because it was the right thing to do for his community.

Democrat Scott Landry of Farmington, running for House District 113, noted that he was in the insurance business for more than 30 years. In that time, he saw health insurance rates rise from less than $100 per month to as high as $1,200 per month for the elderly by the time he left the business several years ago.

Also, he said, Franklin Health Network once employed 850. It now employs 700.

“I believe a lot of those jobs would have been saved if we’d had Medicaid expansion,” Landry said.

His opponent, Republican Lance Harvell of Farmington, said that witnessing this presidential election, no one knows what the Medicaid costs are going to be.

“Our health care system in this country has been a disaster,” he said.

The reason there are so many problems with the U.S. health care system, Harvell said, is because it is a mixture of public and private health care that is outdated.

“Those dynamics no longer apply in the country,” he said. Harvell said companies have had to cut their workforce due to health care costs.

“We will end up in this country with some kind of tiered single-payer system,” he predicted.

Democrat Barbara Chassie of Phillips, who is running for House District 112, said expansion of MaineCare was a signature issue of her campaign.

“I believe we need someone in that seat in Augusta who is going to assist our senator (Saviello) in expanding MaineCare,” she said.

Chassie said that by expanding MaineCare, it will stimulate job creation in health care services.

“That is a reason for expanding MaineCare that has nothing to do with the poor,” she said. “It benefits everyone.”

Tom Skolfield, R-Weld, representing House District 112, said he voted against expanding MaineCare.

“I’m concerned about where all the money comes from to pay for these programs,” he said.

Skolfield said he felt Obamacare wasn’t working.

“To put more money into this program is not a good solution,” he said.

Republican Keith Cornelio of Jay, who is running for House District 74, said he was neutral on the MaineCare issue. He said Gov. Paul LePage had prioritized paying the debt to Maine’s hospitals.

“The next bill’s going to be a lot bigger,” Cornelio said. “We need to figure out how we’re going to pay for it before we start charging the hospitals.”

His opponent, Democrat Tina Riley of Jay, was unable to attend.

bmatulaitis@sunmediagroup.net

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