Democrats extend the shutdown to force Republicans to restore health care and health insurance tax credits. Republicans cry foul, falsely claiming undocumented workers will get coverage under Democrat demands. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Mainers will lose their health care coverage or watch their premiums increase dramatically, unless a compromise is reached. 

We should not be bickering about tax credits, or which group gets Medicaid. While billionaires laugh all the way to the bank, working class Mainers are losing the last traces of a safety net our parents and grandparents fought so hard to build.

The truth is, the highest earners and wealthiest corporations could pay the same tax rates they did in the 1950s and 1960s — and access fewer loopholes — and every American, including Maine’s working class, could have access to health care with no premiums, no co-pays and no deductibles. Period. 

It is time to move to Medicaid for All and end the American health care nightmare. Call our congressional representatives and senators to demand they make health care an American right.

Jarrod Dumas
Readfield