A Republican For Universal Healthcare

When my first son was born six years ago, my wife and I decided the most important job we could do was to stay home and raise our children. She stayed home for the first four years, and when she had the opportunity to work as a teacher, we decided I would stay home with the children.

I have been a stay-at-home dad of two sons for the last two years. Being a stay-at-home parent has not been easy!

One of the problems with employer-based health insurance is that it gives no incentive for parents to stay at home with their children. Many parents do not have the option of staying home, simply because they need to work for insurance. Universal healthcare would allow more parents to stay home and do the most important job in the world — raising children!

Living in Maine on one income is definitely a challenge but we were determined to do it. With two boys in the house, our biggest concern was healthcare. In fact, it was such an important issue that it was the motivating factor in the last four jobs that we have decided to take. It even took precedent over salary.

However, we are not the only people in the state who chose where we work or who we work for solely for the benefit of healthcare. Thousands of people, every day, are "working for insurance." Unfortunately, there are also tens of thousands of Mainers working without insurance. Many more are a merger, takeover or a downsizing away from losing their jobs and insurance.

In a global economy it is becoming increasingly difficult for small businesses (and even larger corporations) to compete when every other industrialized nation in the world has a universal healthcare system. How many more mass outsourcings or layoffs will it take before the people of Maine decide that it is time that we level the playing field and give industries in this state a fighting chance?

Can you imagine a Maine where small businesses are not burdened by the astronomical cost of healthcare premiums? Can you imagine a Maine where employees are not tied to their jobs simply because of the need of health insurance coverage? Can you imagine the "Explosion of Entrepreneurship" that would occur in this state? The people of Maine do not have to imagine it any longer. It can become reality by voting for Pat LaMarche!

I have a unique perspective on the health insurance industry; I worked in it. The only bureaucracy that rivals that of state government is one of a health insurance company. Currently, billions of dollars are being sent out of state in the form of premiums. A staggering percentage of this money goes to excessive paperwork and administrative costs. I was never a supporter of universal healthcare until I started working for a health insurance company — the current system is broken!

On the Maine Republican Party website it states: "Our tenets include limiting federal and state government power to only those functions they can administer better than the private sector can."

I contend that when 141,000 hardworking Mainers go without health insurance, thousands more are underinsured and premium costs are skyrocketing, that the private sector can no longer administer this most important function — our health.

We need to keep this money in the state and start taking care of our own. That is the right thing to do!

The time for tinkering with the current, dysfunctional "health insurance" system is over. We must take bold, courageous steps and provide "healthcare" to everybody. It is important that we do this for our children and for the economic viability of the state.

It is so important that I have decided to work for Pat LaMarche to get her elected. Now that Mainers have heard her plan, everybody in the state will be working to get her elected.

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Mr. Ulrickson is the Bangor field director of the LaMarche for Governor campaign

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