Dear Editor:

Edward Polewarczyk’s recent letter, “Farrin voting record: MaineCare payments,” points to Rep. Wayne Farrin’s vote last year on LD 331, legislation dealing with the timing of MaineCare reimbursements to hospitals. That vote is certainly part of Farrin’s record. But I think readers deserve to see the broader record as well.

Health care — and particularly access to health care in rural Maine — has been an important issue during Farrin’s first term.

Here in Lincoln County, that has included the very issue Mr. Polewarczyk raises at the end of his letter: the future of labor and delivery services at Miles. When hundreds of local residents came together this summer to oppose the possible loss of those services, Farrin was there. He has supported the effort to maintain local labor and delivery services and has recognized what is at stake when essential health care disappears from rural communities.

His legislative record also includes a number of votes to expand and protect access to health care. Farrin voted for LD 1948, aptly titled “An Act to Fund MaineCare.” He voted for legislation intended to provide young children with stable access to health care. This year, he supported legislation expanding access to vaccines through local pharmacists while requiring insurance coverage for those vaccines.

Perhaps most relevant to the question of hospital funding, Farrin also voted for this year’s supplemental state budget. That budget provided substantial additional funding for MaineCare and specifically increased funding to cover rising costs at Maine hospitals, including hospital cost settlements and other MaineCare hospital payments.

None of that means every individual vote should escape scrutiny. Mr. Polewarczyk is entirely entitled to question Farrin’s vote on LD 331. But selecting one roll-call vote and suggesting from it that Farrin is indifferent to the financial health of Maine hospitals or access to medical care tells only part of the story.

The better measure of any legislator is the broader record. On health care, that record includes votes to fund MaineCare, support hospital funding, expand access to health coverage and services, and preserve critically important health care here in Lincoln County.

That broader record deserves to be part of this discussion as well.

Keith Mestrich, Chair

Lincoln County Democratic Committee