How healthy we are in comparison to the rest of the U.S. and Canada, is critical to determining just how far and in which direction the public side of our health care system is expanded. Media hysteria driven by vested interests and effective non-profit lobbying unfortunately has  clouded our perception of what is needed and what is adequate. Viewed this way, it is no wonder that the Bureau of Health is an amalgam of categorical 'concerns'. 

The State of Maine’s Health

It’s going to be quite a surprise to readers, that overall, Mainers enjoy rather good health.  To be sure, there are some problem some health risk areas; but there are regions in the State, like Farmington , where the state of health is very good. But if you follow the old internist's maxim of “you look, you find”, then people searching for signs of sickness will always find something. Few people study wellness, and even fewer study wellness in a context of what many believe to be the signs of a 'sick' society, i.e. France & Italy's high rate of alcohol and tobacco consumption  confounds their excellent health indicators and longevity.

There is a lot of new money being poured into Maine to “look”; from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation which has underwritten major lobbying efforts by members of the Coalition for Affordable HealthCare, to the tobacco settlement monies and the never ceasing efforts of health related unions at TOGUS to protect member jobs. There is also considerable institutional self-interest to ‘preserve’ the present system, ranging from HMO’s who would be eliminated under a single payer plan according to the detailed studies done in Vermont last summer; or large chain drug stores whose profit margins are being threatened by the Pingree/Allen coalition to cap drug prices in some way.

What is important to the consciousness health care policy planner it to match resources---services, accessibility, etc. to the scale of the ‘real’ problem, and to even out disparities. One way I do it, is to review the health “FACTS” for Maine and compare them to averages for the U.S. and then examine those scary headlines for some kind of validity. The large question then is just ‘HOW HEALTHY ARE MAINERS IN COMPARISON TO THE REST OF THE U.S. ’ and what are the trends.  Answering this question is difficult since the health care data is organized into topics largely following various ‘crisis’s’ present & past, not into some coherent whole.

 Governor King, in his call for a Maine Health Date Warehouse could well have been showing his frustration with having read descriptions from among the hundreds of topics that rarely followed the format of the previous ones. Each categorical has its own way of presenting or, more often than not, “selling” its particular set of concerns. In many, a ‘national’ problem is described in detail, leaving the reader to believe it’s now a big problem in Maine , while the fine print may indicate that it has declined over the past years. Previous health ‘crisis’s’ become institutionalized, as do reporting criteria, and new ones simply get layered over the old. If one digs deep enough, they can even find the phone number for the WHOOPING COUGH center.   The Maine Department of Health now has over 300 employees in three major locations in Augusta and hundreds of smaller data  points around the state.  Their two main reports are the Leading Health Indicators & M.D.S. ‘FACT SHEETS’.

I’ve broken down Maine ’s health care into six basic categories so that people can more easily view real and exaggerated threats to our health in a national context:

·         OVERALL:

·         INFANTS & CHILDREN (pre natal > 10)

·         Adolescents (11-21)

·         Young adults(21-35)

·         Middle ages(35-55)

·         SENIORS(55 & up)

1. 

2. Maine Bureau of Health

3. Center for Communicable Disease.

4. Bureau of Drug & Alcohol Abuse.

5. Public Opinion Surveys..

6. Maine Economic Growth Council