Experts: MaineCare cuts will hurt county residents

AREA — Local service providers have warned that Governor LePage's proposed MaineCare cuts could hurt many residents of Oxford County.

"There's a whole array of things that the governor has proposed that will affect the people of Oxford County," said Joan Churchill, director of development, Community Concepts.

The cuts have been suggested as a means of closing a $220 million funding gap in the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). LePage has argued that the entire amount should come from DHHS, while Democrats have argued that the entire state budget should be considered.

Under LePage's MaineCare plan, 65,000 people would lose their existing coverage.

Churchill said that the organization would lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding to such programs as Head Start, child care assistance, Maine Families, and a community-based child welfare program that addresses child abuse and neglect.

The total cost to Community Concepts is unknown, said Churchill.

"We haven't added it up, because we're so afraid to," she said, half-jokingly.

Ken Morse, of Healthy Oxford Hills, said that his organization, which is a project of Stephens Memorial Hospital, would also be hard-hit.

"The Healthy Maine Partnerships and the Coordinated School Health program, both of those would be cut," said Morse."The school-based health centers would be eliminated as well."

"Things like prescriptions for elders and substance abuse programs, will be totally cut," said Morse. "Others ... will take big hits."

Jenn Raudonis, owner, Common Ground Counseling, said that the substance abuse treatment services she provides are too important to lose.

"I think the worst-case scenario would be someone getting treatments, and without the treatments, they relapse," she said. "Some of the clients have had addiction in their life for 30, 40, 50 years. A lot of people, they finally step into treatments, and then to potentially have to say to them, 'gee you lost your insurance,' it would be devastating."

Money

The main argument in favor of the deep social service cuts is that it would save taxpayer money.

But Morse argued that the cuts could actually cost taxpayers money.

At HOH, the loss of Healthy Maine Partnerships would mean the elimination of a position currently held by Pat Carson, who has earned a reputation as an expert grant writer for the organizations that he works with.

"He's done so much good work and brought a lot of resources into the area," said Morse.

In fact, the threatened Healthy Maine Partnership effort has brought in more than $600,000 in grants to do things like promote fitness, nutrition, and health among children and adults in the area.

It has also been a part of another $1.5 million in grants to achieve similar goals.

And when Healthy Maine prevents things like tobacco use, obesity, and substance abuse, they "cut costs now and in the future for government, businesses, hospitals, schools, and families," said Morse.

Public health advocates claim that every dollar spent on prevention efforts saves Maine $7.50.

Deb Dotter, the coordinator of Maine Alliance for Addiction Recovery, said that addictions are already a weighty burden on society, and that cutting programs will only make the matter worse.

"As Maine residents, we paid $1.18 billion for alcohol and drug problems in our state this past year, at the tune of $907 for every resident," she said. 

The costs, she said, include crime, deaths, medical care, illness, and related services.

"People don’t get better when we pay for the symptoms of active addiction," she said. "People get better when we offer treatment and recovery support, enabling millions in our country to spend clean and sober lifetimes as productive members of their communities."

According to Dotter, only 17 percent of people who need treatment for substance abuse have access to such treatment.

"These aren't good numbers," she said. "Our state leaders are telling us they will save us money by slashing funding for treatment and prevention services. That looks like a great deal on the front end, but will cost us far more in reality."

Children

Churchill said that the impact on children could be significant, especially in Head Start.

"The proposed cut would force us to reduce the number of children receiving Head Start early childhood education services," she said.

Community Concepts' Alternate Response Program, which assesses and stabilizes situations involving child abuse and neglect, would undergo a 50-percent reduction.

"Our contract of roughly $430,000 would be cut in half," said Churchill. "This could impact hundreds of children in Oxford County by, at minimum, not having access to services so they would no longer be at further risk of more abuse or neglect."

The Maine Families home visitation program helps more than 100 low-income families in Oxford County to help children develop appropriately. Under the proposed cuts, the county would lose the entire $325,000 in funding.

Raudonis said that children would also be the hidden victims of reductions in substance abuse treatment programs.

"We are also licensed to serve family members, a lot of kids," she said. "If we had to drop them, it would be terrible. We're trying to prevent them from falling into the cycle of addiction."

Uncertainty

Raudonis said that it's difficult to know what form the actual cuts will take, because the situation in Augusta is changing all the time.

"It's all proposed right now, so we don't know what's going to happen," she said.

Churchill urged those who have concerns to take action.

"People who want to speak to their local legislators should do so now, as our state representatives and senators will be voting on these issues in the next 10 days," she said.

Raudonis struck a defiant tone.

"We're going to stick around no matter what happens," she said. "The services we provide are too important to lose. If Governor LePage wants to say something about that, he'll have to call me himself."