We, the undersigned, are farmers, small business owners, and independent contractors. We know what it is not to have  health insurance and not have health care. We are not just employers, we also workers who work for ourselves.

We are people of all major and minor party affiliation and no party affiliation. We put human decency before any party. We want everyone to have health care. 

We, the undersigned, support LD 718, the restoration of MaineCare (Medicaid) to all low income people of all ages, regardless of immigration status. We believe that if the State of Maine can afford to give away billions of dollars in tax breaks to large businesses (including rich hospitals and universities) and our small businesses can barely compete to stay in business, then it must be that the State of Maine can afford a handful of millions to make sure all low income people have health care.

Some of us are the descendants of people who suffered without health care, and some of us are people who are suffering without health care right now, but we "make too much" to have MaineCare. We do not believe it honors the memory of our ancestors nor the suffering we face right now for our low income immigrant workers, who are our fellow Maine residents and employees, to suffer now without health care. There are many types of people suffering. We want them all to have health care. 

Restoring MaineCare to all low income people, regardless of age and immigration status, is the humane thing to do and it makes good economic sense. Our workers need to be able to take care of themselves before they are so sick that they can't even work. They deserve that, and we want them to be able to do that. We are grateful for farmworker health care programs, hospital free care, and free clinics, but they are not health insurance. Their services are limited or sometimes delayed. Not all immigrants are not eligible. Some struggle to get enrolled due to cash wages, limited literacy, or simply being tired of the burden of having to prove their worthiness for care.

We want the Appropriations and Financial Affairs committee to fund MaineCare for all low income people of any age, regardless of immigration status. We want the House and Senate to pass a budget with this full funding, and for the Governor to sign that budget. If needed, we want the Senate to pass LD 718 (the House already did) and for Appropriations to fund it fully, and we want the Governor to sign it into law.

We are the farmers, small businesses, and independent contractors who run your districts and your state. We are the people who vote you into office. We are watching to see what you do "unto the least of these". May you do what is right and restore MaineCare for all low income people, and in doing so, honor your ancestors and all who suffer today without health care.

Note: We are of all types of backgrounds ethnically, nationally, racially, religiously, and regionally. We are the descendants of the first peoples of this land--stripped of our land for profit and murdered in the millions to make way for new rulers. We are the descendants of Africans who were enslaved by the rich--stripped of our lives, children, and freedom, our labor extracted against our will to build wealth for the few. We are descendants of European indentured servants and early migrants from Europe--exploited for our labor and manipulated to believe our Native and African neighbors were our foes. We are the descendants of, and present day, immigrants from all corners of the world--Asian and Pacific Islander, African, Middle Eastern, European, Australian and Aboriginal, Alaskan Native and Canadian, North, Central and South American and Caribbean--wherever the U.S. and Europe has gone to make war and build empire, or wherever the rich companies have gone to destroy our local natural resources and economies, we have fled to this land to survive and seek safety here--a safety that is sometimes elusive. We are the descendants of people with a combination of some or all of the aforementioned experiences.