I have been a hotel manager in Waterville for seven years working alongside the immigrant family that hired me. That stability allowed me to become an active member of my community. I volunteer with several organizations and work with parents at a local preschool. In that time I have managed to achieve a measure of success for myself that 10 years ago I would have thought was impossible.

The only reason I made it this far is because I had programs to fall back on, including MaineCare.

A couple of years ago I developed walking pneumonia and my instinct was to put off treatment because of cost. I cannot tell you what it is like to lay in bed, gasping for air and calculating the cost-benefit of being treated. But I can tell you that if I didn’t have MaineCare I would have made a much different decision, an incredibly dangerous one. It would have been the right decision for my family and it’s the decision I know too many people in our state are facing right now.

The fact that I didn’t have to bear that cost is part of the reason I have that measure of success that I do. The opportunity given to me by immigrants is another part. Yet they’re ineligible for that same support. If an immigrant worker were doing my job and went through the same situation I did, they’d be dead or bankrupt.

The difference between us wouldn’t be our job, our income, or where we live. The difference would be where we were born. This is more than unjust. This was a deliberate decision made by our state government.

It is a willful act of cruelty that must end. The Legislature must pass L.D. 718 to restore MaineCare access to immigrants.

 

Michael Mosley

Waterville

Copy the Story Link