In interviews last week with reporter Beth Brogan, executives at Mid Coast Hospital and Parkview Adventist Medical Center laid out the direct impact of Gov. Paul LePage’s proposed Department of Health and Human Services cuts on their operations.

If the Legislature passes LePage’s proposal as written, Mid Coast Hospital would swallow a $410,000 reduction for the remainder of 2012 and another $1.8 million in cuts projected for 2013, according to Mid Coast Health Services President and Chief Executive Officer Lois Skillings.

Parkview would experience $65,000 in cuts this year, followed by approximately $600,000 in 2013, according to Ted Lewis, the hospital’s president and chief executive officer.

The level of local pain inflicted indirectly as a result of the DHHS cuts is harder to diagnose — but potentially more significant.

Removing 65,000 people from the MaineCare rolls won’t heal them. Instead, it’s more likely to drive newly uninsured Mainers to delay basic care, eschew early intervention and rely more heavily on hospitals’ — far more expensive — emergency rooms for treatment.

That scenario inevitably will place hospitals in the position to provide more free care, which will, in turn, drive up private insurance premiums. A Massachusetts actuarial firm contracted by the Maine Bureau of Insurance to analyze the impact of Maine’s new health insurance law seemed to ignore these market forces when it predicted that rates for individuals would decline in the near future.

We place far more faith in Maine health care professionals than in outof state actuaries to provide accurate short- and long-term fiscal prognoses for the state’s health care system.

The repercussions of the proposed cuts will exact a toll on this area’s already ailing business climate.

Mid Coast Hospital provided $8.5 million worth of free care in 2011. Shackling one of the Mid- coast region’s largest employers with an $8.5 million leg iron that’s likely to grow significantly as a result of Le- Page’s proposed cuts will do nothing but harm the local economy. That pain will radiate out into this community as well.

The governor’s DHHS budget rollback also cuts $29.5 million from the Fund for a Healthy Maine — more than half of the program’s budget for fiscal year 2013.

Relying on money from the state’s share of a national settlement with tobacco companies, the Fund for a Healthy Maine underwrites scores of prevention programs designed to reduce medical costs by promoting nutrition, exercise, smoking cessation and health education. It’s an investment in good health that pays back $7.50 for every $1 spent, according to an analysis by the Trust for America’s Health.

The fund’s good work manifests itself locally through the Access Health partnership. Through a comprehensive array of programs that directly benefit infants to elders, Access Health and its many partners lay the groundwork for a healthier Mid-coast region and Maine.

Gutting the Fund for a Healthy Maine would represent a short-sighted act of political triage that will intensify physical and fiscal pain in Maine long after LePage has checked out of the Blaine House.

letters@timesrecord.com