Category Archives: health policy

Obamacare premiums are up in Maine, and here’s why

The Trump administration recently released a report showing that health insurance premiums in Maine have jumped 55 percent under Obamacare. Nationally, monthly premiums have doubled for Americans in the Obamacare market since the health reform law took effect, it found. The timing was notable. The report came out just before the Congressional Budget Office released its eagerly […]

Due for a medical procedure or blood work? Maine patients, use this new tool to shop around.

You can’t always shop around when it comes to your medical care. The back of an ambulance is no place to start Googling hospitals to find out which one provides the best and most affordable treatment for the heart attack you’re experiencing. But when you can plan ahead — think an elective procedure or imaging test — it […]

Maine woman celebrates Macy’s pledge to stop selling furniture with flame retardants

Three years ago, I interviewed a Portland woman who had just learned that potentially toxic chemicals were lurking in her house. Jenny Rottmann, due to give birth to her first child in a matter of days, worried the couch she’d purchased at a local department store could harm both her and her baby. The pale green couch had been treated […]

The innocents in Maine’s drug crisis: Almost 1,000 Maine babies exposed in the womb

Eight percent of all babies born in Maine during the last fiscal year entered the world affected by drugs. That’s nearly 1,000 infants exposed to drugs in the womb, the highest number on record and a more than fivefold increase since 2006. This chart reflects instances where health care providers reported to the state that they had reasonable cause to […]

Are parents refusing vaccines at your child’s school? Now you can check.

For the first time in Maine, parents can easily look up vaccination rates at their local elementary school. The Maine Center for Disease Control publicly released the data for the 2014-15 school year, revealing how many children were exempted from school-required vaccines — and for what reasons — in kindergarten and first-grade classes. The data also show […]