There are many people who are confused about what is at stake under the proposed health care bill. But here are some things to keep in mind:

Most people here in Maine live paycheck to paycheck due to the lack of a healthy economic base. Salaries are depressed and the population is growing older. That means that many people are a paycheck away from bankruptcy with any serious hospitalization — insured or not. Steep deductibles and co-pays have most people by the throat. No insurance? Forget it. Under both scenarios, a person might be lucky and end up on Medicaid.

But the Senate health care bill proposes to cut Medicaid spending by knocking people off of the program and changing the funding to a per-capita basis. That is kind of like giving two injured people $5 for Band-Aids. Not a problem for the guy who fell off the bike, but slightly more of an issue for the guy with gangrene. Yes, the per capita amount would be higher for disabled folks.

Pushing people off Medicaid and back into the marketplace has a ripple effect. Hospitals have to absorb the cost of treating them, people wait to seek treatment, folks get sicker and everyone’s premiums increase. For states, inadequate funding for Medicaid has to be absorbed and inevitably gets passed on to its citizens.

What is at stake are our very lives.

 Janet Begert, Bowdoinham