Press Contact
Medical Breakthrough — Overdue
Bangor, Maine — Pat LaMarche today called for Maine to manufacture M.D.s, Dentists and Pharmacists as the cornerstone of better healthcare and economic recovery.
"If we want our kids to stay in Maine, if we want them to have high paying jobs, if we want healthcare extended into our most rural areas, and if we want businesses to locate outside the few business centers we have in Maine, then we need the educational opportunities and the healthcare accessibility that these schools provide." — Pat LaMarche |
"Of all the things Maine needs right now, two stand out as the most important. First, Maine needs solutions and second, Maine needs leaders to implement those solutions," stated LaMarche.
"It is my goal that by the time the students entering their freshman year in college this September attend their graduation ceremonies, they will have the option of attending an allopathic medical school, or a dental school, or a pharmacy school right here in Maine."
Calling upon the recommendations put forth by the 1995 Maine Healthcare Reform Commission, LaMarche cited the need for Maine to steward the education of its own healthcare providers.
 Pat calls for medical, dental and pharmacy schools in Maine as the cornerstone of better healthcare and economic recovery. enlarge
 Bill Beardsley, president of Husson College, said the creation of a medical school in the Bangor area was logical. enlarge
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"This isn't a new idea; it's just a good idea," added LaMarche. "If we want our kids to stay in Maine, if we want them to have high paying jobs, if we want healthcare extended into our most rural areas, and if we want businesses to locate outside the few business centers we have in Maine, then we need the educational opportunities and the healthcare accessibility that these schools provide."
Maine used to have an M.D.-granting medical school at Bowdoin College. However, like so many medical schools at the turn of the twentieth century, they did not keep up with the rapidly changing and advancing science available, and became obsolete.
The following is a quote from the annals of the official history of Bowdoin College:
"This school has exerted a very marked influence on the interests of medical science, and also upon the general interests of education in the State, and has annually sent forth a corps of physicians qualified not only to cope vigorously with the unseen, though certain foe of the human race, but who have also shown themselves, hitherto, alive to the material welfare and best interests of the State, and have thus far more than repaid the amount expended upon the school by the State."
This statement is as true today as it was in the nineteenth century. LaMarche emphasizes the positive financial impact that educating medical professionals will have upon our state.
 Pat will ride this ambulance around the state this fall to emphasize her call for medical, dental and pharmacy schools in Maine as the cornerstone of better healthcare and economic recovery for all Mainers. enlarge
 LaMarche supporters, wearing medical scrubs emblazoned with "LaMarche Healthcare Plan to the Rescue."
Pat's dad, Dr. Paul LaMarche, stands with Pat at the press
conference announcing her healthcare plan enlarge
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Maine is fortunate to have an Osteopathic medical school in Biddeford, but lacks doctoral programs in medicine, dentistry and pharmacology. LaMarche fully supports UNE's push for a pharmacy school to further advance the careers of Maine's young people. LaMarche will push for similar educational opportunities for students in the Bangor area.
"Even if we can accept missing out on millions of dollars and like numbers of opportunities for our young people over the last thirty years, it is inexcusable to allow this sort of shortsightedness to further cloud our futures. Adequate access to healthcare in the state of Maine is dependent upon having an adequate supply of providers," said LaMarche.
"Today we call for a doctoral program in Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmacology. Today, we start planning for a better tomorrow, a healthier tomorrow — a tomorrow filled with educational opportunity and economic recovery, for all of Maine's people,” she added.
Noting the redundancy in the governor just yesterday calling for yet another Blue Ribbon Commission to study the same issues contained within the 1995, 2000 and 2002 healthcare commissions, LaMarche said, "We do not need new studies and new expenses — we need the leadership to implement the valid and repeated recommendations found in prior healthcare commission reports."
