LEWISTON — Local lawmakers at an AARP Maine forum Friday called for major changes in a health care system they said costs too much and often fails to help people stay healthy.

Rep. Bettyann Sheats, D-Auburn, said the system has little incentive to keep people well.

Instead of health care, she said, “we have sick care,” with medical providers paid to heal the sick instead of trying to keep people from falling ill.

A retired physician, Sen. Ned Claxton, D-Auburn, called it “rescue medicine.”

The few legislators attending the session at E. Claire and Pastries with about 15 residents expressed support for efforts to lower prescription drug prices and push for a system of universal care that would focus more attention on helping Mainers avoid illness.

“Health care is the No. 1 issue in my heart and in my mind,” Rep. Heidi Brooks, D-Lewiston, said.

Though the 90-minute session touched on a number of issues, from passenger rail to the prospect of Maine hosting the Winter Olympics someday, much of the talk focused on the need to bring down the price of prescription drugs.

Finding a way to make pricing more transparent and to lessen the financial burden on patients is something that is “truly bipartisan,” said Amy Gallant, advocacy director for AARP Maine.

Ryan Angelo, a staffer for Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, said it’s an important issue for her, citing her work on a number of proposals to deal with the problem.

Several legislators recommended that Mainers who want to find the cheapest source of prescription drugs should try the GoodRx website or app to compare prices at a number of pharmacies.

Many prescriptions vary widely in price from one store to the next, they said, and checking out the cost at each can often save hundreds of dollars.

Legislators said they’re eyeing bills in Augusta that would open the door to buying prescription medication in Canada, where the drugs are typically far cheaper than in the United States.

They’re also taking aim at a system that has three pharmacy benefits management firms controlling most prescriptions as middlemen between insurers and pharmacies.

Brooks said drugmakers offer “kickbacks or rebates” to the managers to promote certain prescriptions that wind up costing consumers more.

Claxton said “they’re all in bed” with one another.

The companies, though, maintain that the system promotes efficiency without increasing costs.

Claxton said he has a bill that would save some Mainers money by allowing prescription medication purchased by nursing homes and other providers to return unused drugs that are still in their blister packs to pharmacies. Under current law, it is simply thrown out.

Pharmacists could then sell the returned medicine at low cost to people who otherwise couldn’t afford the drugs, Claxton said.

Rep. James Handy, D-Lewiston, said he is trying to get a bill through to require insurers to cover the tab for hearing aids, a step that would allow many Mainers to return to work or at least to feel less isolated.

Sheats said the system needs an overhaul.

She said government pays for health care for the oldest Americans, veterans and low-income people — three groups that often have the highest medical care costs.

But it doesn’t do anything, Sheats said, “for the workers who drive our economy” and who deserve good, affordable coverage.

The forum was the ninth of a series of 15 that Maine AARP scheduled around the state to give residents and legislators a chance to talk about prescription drug prices, Gallant said.

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