By: Beau Boughamer
In chronicling Maine’s efforts to provide adequate health care to its residents, the New York Times this past week noted increased traffic at health centers, including Penobscot Community Health Care in Bangor.
Maine now has 19 such clinics serving 200,000 people — a fifth of the state’s population. The largest of them is Penobscot Community Health Care in Bangor, which has three cheerful, green-roofed buildings on its main campus, 126 medical providers and last year served 45,000 patients.
“We’ve been bringing in between 60 and 100 new patients a week,” said the Rev. Robert T. Carlson, Penobscot’s president. “The growth has been phenomenal.”
After years of studying and suffering from these trends, Mr. White, the mechanic from Bar Harbor, said he has concluded that Maine’s last best hope is a national health care overhaul. With a red Alfa Romeo, a silver 1959 Mercedes convertible and four other foreign cars in bays behind him, Mr. White clenched his grease-covered hands and his bright blue eyes filled with tears as he discussed his own inability to get health insurance for his mechanic and himself.
“We’re better than this,” he said. “This isn’t about government. It’s about who we are as a people.”
Maine now has 19 such clinics serving 200,000 people — a fifth of the state’s population. The largest of them is Penobscot Community Health Care in Bangor, which has three cheerful, green-roofed buildings on its main campus, 126 medical providers and last year served 45,000 patients.
“We’ve been bringing in between 60 and 100 new patients a week,” said the Rev. Robert T. Carlson, Penobscot’s president. “The growth has been phenomenal.”
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