LEWISTON — On one side: an advocate for Maine’s small business owners. On the other: a representative for Maine’s doctors. 

In between: the tricky knot of health care reform. 

“There is nothing to say (the U.S. Senate) bill is the sole solution. There are better ways to do it,” said Peter Gore, a vice president at the Maine Chamber of Commerce.  

“People are dying, the system is crumbling and quality is getting
worse,” Gordon Smith, executive vice president
for the Maine Medical Association, said a few minutes later. “That’s the  rush.”  

For more than an hour Wednesday, Gore, Smith and representatives from AARP and the insurance industry discussed health care reform and answered questions about current proposals as part of a panel discussion sponsored by Maine Change That Works, the Maine State Chamber of Commerce and the Androscoggin Chamber of Commerce. More than a dozen community members and area business owners attended the event.

 Attendees wrote down questions for the panel. The event’s moderator, Maine Insurance Superintendent Mila Kofman, chose which to present.

Over the hour, the four-member panel discussed health care reform and the Senate’s proposal. Though the panel rarely got into the details of the Senate bill, it did talk about the proposal to immediately subsidize health insurance costs for small businesses. 

Gore, with the Maine Chamber of Commerce, and Joel Allumbaugh, head of the insurance agency National Worksite Benefit Group, weren’t sure whether such a subsidy would help the small businesses they deal with. If the subsidy were funded by higher taxes, they said, business owners would not end up ahead. And if insurance prices remained high, some businesses wouldn’t be able to afford the cost, even with a subsidy, they said. 

Smith, however, felt a subsidy — even one paid for with new or higher taxes — could help. The current cost of insurance, he said, “is really strangling small businesses in Maine.”

In general, all four panelists agreed that the current health care system could be improved. But they disagreed on whether current proposals were the solution or just another problem.

Allumbaugh and Gore were not convinced that congressional proposals would be any better than the current health care system. Gore suggested lawmakers not rush into any proposal. 

“The question is: How much buyer’s remorse will there be?” Gore said. 

But Steve Griffin, an associate state director with the Maine AARP, said the country can’t afford to wait on reform. Smith agreed, adding that the current Senate bill doesn’t have to be perfect.

“Let’s pass it, then we can immediately go to work to improve it,” Smith said. 

At least one attendee was disappointed by the forum. Anita Poulin of Auburn owns a small graphics business. She pays for her health insurance with savings. Her husband is on dialysis and receives government assistance for his health care. She had hoped panelists would give more details about current proposals and what they could mean for her family.

She said she’s asked elsewhere, but nobody seems to have an answer.

“How can they pass something that nobody has the answers to?” she said. 

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Gordon Smith, executive vice president of the Maine Medical Association, responds to questions during a panel discussion on health care reform held at the Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday.