March 7, 1975
Page 5777
MAINE LEGISLATURE URGES HEW TO RESTORE MEDICARE-MEDICAID FUNDS TO HOSPITALS IN THE TOWNS OF DEXTER AND MILO
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, on behalf of Senator HATHAWAY and myself, I ask unanimous consent that this joint resolution adopted by the Maine Legislature urging HEW Secretary Caspar Weinberger to restore medicare-medicaid payments to hospitals in the towns of Dexter and Milo, Maine, be printed in the RECORD.
There being no objection, the joint resolution was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
JOINT RESOLUTION MEMORIALIZING THE HONORABLE CASPAR W. WEINBERGER, SECRETARY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION AND WELFARE OF THE UNITED STATES TO RESTORE MEDICARE-MEDICAID FUNDS TO THE LOCAL HOSPITALS OF THE TOWNS OF DEXTER, MILO AND SIMILAR COMMUNITIES
We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Maine now assembled in Regular Session of the One Hundred and Seventh Legislative Session, most respectfully present and petition the Secretary of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare and the United States Congress as follows:
Whereas, the Plummer Memorial Hospital has served the medical needs of Dexter, Maine continuously and well since its opening in 1920; and
Whereas, the townspeople of Dexter have aided and supported this hospital, and have provided an ambulance service for this hospital, serviced by the volunteer fire department; and
Whereas, the Plummer Memorial Hospital has been licensed by the State of Maine for the year 1975 to serve the people of Dexter, a license recognized by all major medical insurance companies, including Blue Cross-Blue Shield; and
Whereas, the Department of Health, Education and Welfare has decided, contrary to the almost unanimous vote of the March, 1974 Dexter town meeting, that the Plummer Memorial Hospital shall be closed and that the people of Dexter shall be forced to use a regional hospital to be built in Dover-Foxcroft, 13 miles to the north; and
Whereas, the department has decided, based upon a technical and controversial interpretation of one regulation of the Federal Fire Code, that the hospital, in existence since 1920, is in violation of that fire code and must be closed; and
Whereas, the Department of Health, Education and Welfare has, therefore, cut off all but emergency Medicare-Medicaid funds to the Plummer Memorial Hospital, an action intended to close that facility; and
Whereas, the people of Dexter have received little cooperation from the regional director of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, who seems unconcerned about the welfare of the people of Dexter when that welfare conflicts with a regionalization plan previously decided upon; and
Whereas, the situation in Dexter is too often repeated in other areas of Maine; and
Whereas, the Legislature of this State sympathizes with the struggle of all people who desire to preserve their own hospital facilities and their independence from the dictates of a huge federal agency; now, therefore, be it
Resolved: That We, your Memorialists, hereby record our dissatisfaction with the actions of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare and with the actions and uncooperative attitude of certain of its regional representatives, and respectfully urge and petition the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare and the Congress of the United States to take appropriate action to help the people of Dexter, Milo and similar communities to maintain their own hospital facilities as active and useful hospitals serving the local needs of rural areas by restoring the use of all Medicare-Medicaid funds; and be it further
Resolved: That a copy of this Memorial, duly authenticated by the Secretary of State, be immediately transmitted by the Secretary of State to the Secretary of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare of the United States, and to the Members of the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States Congress from this State.