To the editor:

On the spur of the moment, I went to Augusta to attend the candlelight vigil outside the State House just before Gov. Paul LePage’s State of the State address.

We were protesting the proposed heavy cuts to MaineCare funding that could throw tens of thousands of Maine citizens off their health insurance. The vigil was short to allow a few of the supporting legislators to make it back inside for the address.

As the crowd was dispersing, I noticed a knot of people holding a sign that said that they were from a homeless shelter. As I walked back to my car. I thought that these were the folks who would really be in trouble if the cuts went through. How would they afford their meds if they had a serious medical or mental illness?

On the drive home I listened to Gov. LePage’s speech. He did not actually say the word “MaineCare,” but instead said “welfare” as if it were a dirty word. My heart sank a little bit.

Obviously the testimony of dozens of Mainers before the Department of Health and Human Services Committee did not sway his resolve to slash the MaineCare budget.

I thought about the folks from the homeless shelter. How desperate would they be if they lost their insurance?

The notice would probably come in a nondescript letter from Augusta, printed by computer and electronically signed by the governor or DHHS Commissioner Mary Mayhew. Would there be any help offered if the letter said the MaineCare insurance was being canceled?

Ultimately, I realized that the worst thing about the MaineCare cuts would be the loss of hope that they would engender. The current economic slowdown will not end that soon, so the cuts will likely last and last.

When people lose hope, they become desperate and take drastic measures to end their suffering. About a year ago, a fruit merchant in Sidi Bou Zid, Tunisia, could not pay a bribe to keep his vendor’s license, so in an act of supreme desperation he doused himself with gasoline and set himself on fire. There is now a memorial to Mr. Bouazizi in the town, He died before learning that his act had sparked a series of revolutions in the Islamic world that finally got rid of much of the corruption that made him so desperate.

As I pulled into my driveway, I wondered if this type of blood-curdling suicide would start happening in Maine as the MaineCare cuts took effect. Isn’t there a better way to balance the budget?

Peter Bridgman, M.D.
Yarmouth