Mainers are dealing with a health care crisis, and it is time health care is treated as a human right. Many residents are left uninsured or underinsured as we suffer from a market-based system. Our health care system is in crisis; we are going without, and it is time that the state does something.

People are fed up, which has led to a movement toward recognizing health care as a human right. In 2008, a grassroots organization in Vermont launched a campaign to promote health as a human right. After many years of organizing, Vermont became the first state to enact a universal publicly financed health care system.

The Maine Healthcare as a Human Right Campaign was founded this year and is encouraging residents to work together to make changes in this state.

We cannot stand by as fellow Mainers suffer. United, the possibility of universal health care is a reality.

Melissa ClementChina


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