In a 1/6/2011 editorial entitled “Affordable Care Act needs a label that shows its advantages,” Biddeford Journal Tribune editorial writer Nick Cowenhoven writes “the legislation may need some work, but it has already barred insurance companies from rescinding coverage when patients become sick, and from setting maximum dollar limits on coverage benefits. Young people can remain covered by their parents’ health insurance until they turn 26, and those caught by the “doughnut hole” in Medicare drug coverage are eligible for discounts.”
In a 1/7/2011 op ed column in the Portland Press Herald entitled “Maine doctors want to improve Affordable Care Act, not repeal it,” Maine Medical Association President Dr. Jo E. Linder reported that the MMA recently surveyed its members and found that fewer than 15% favor ACA repeal. “Going backward should not be an option,” she writes. “Let’s keep the ACA and work to amend those parts of it that need fixing.”
And in a 1/8/2011 op ed in the Bangor Daily News entitled “Time to stop denying Affordable Care Act,” Maine Council of Senior Citizens President John Carr details many of the important new benefits the ACA provides to Medicare recipients. “Seniors and all Mainers will be better served if we channel our energies toward implementing the ACA, making sure Mainers fully realize its benefits and putting the health of our residents ahead of politics and profits,” Carr writes. “It’s time to stop trying to deny care and join together to make this landmark legislation work for all Mainers.”
