During the past six weeks, the Sun Journal has subjected its readers to columns by Rep. Mike Lajoie, Doug Rooks and various others shilling for the Medicaid expansion. I would ask all Mainers to take a second look at what they are being told and consider other facts.

First, they tell us it will help 70,000 uninsured Mainers, but in truth a large number of these people are insured at work and switching them to MaineCare allows them to not pay for employer-sponsored coverage. As the eligible insureds decrease, the cost to the remainder in those employers groups increases, thus their gain will be our loss as our health insurance premiums will increase.

Secondly, no one is currently denied health care, but rather they lack health care reimbursement. This bill simply changes who pays for the care they receive.

Let’s not forget that, according to the Muskie Institute, MaineCare recipients use the emergency room twice as much as other Mainers. The change will do nothing to stop the number of non-emergency cases taking up time and energy in the emergency rooms.

Third, when Gov. Paul LePage asked for a federal change, he was simply asking to be treated the same as other states. Maine has been overly generous with who was allowed coverage in the past, while other states were more stringent in applying eligibility. Equalizing that playing field means those in Maine already covered would be reimbursed at 62 percent of federal dollars, but someone in another state with same income parameters could be reimbursed at 100 percent to that state.

Part of his request was to treat Maine the same as other states and reimburse everyone above a certain income level at 100 percent.

That is exactly why the governor gets my continued support.

Lastly, but most importantly, despite what they tell people, federal dollars are simply the public’s tax dollars being spent. It is not money from heaven or some other entity providing it, but rather continued taxation and spending at the state and federal level that is not sustainable.

Calling it federal dollars is nothing more than an attempt to hide the truth and hope people are not smart enough to understand it.

Robert Reed, Lewiston