The reforms Gideon proposes would be a blow for pharmaceutical corporations and the agenda blames the drug industry’s political might and extensive lobbying efforts for establishing “the status quo of our healthcare system.”
“She’s serious about taking on tough issues and going against the pharma industry, which isn’t easy,” Woloson said.
Sen. Susan Collins has faced sharp criticism for accepting significant contributions from the pharmaceutical industry. Over the course of her career, Collins has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from industry-linked PACs and individuals, including from the Sackler family, owners of opioid makers Purdue Pharma, which has admitted to misleading the public about the dangers of Oxycontin, and from drug company Eli Lilly, which has dramatically hiked the price of insulin and faces a class action lawsuit for its alleged price gouging.
Contrasting records
Democrats have criticized Collins’ legislative record on health care policy.
Although Collins cast a deciding vote in 2017 to save the Affordable Care Act, that vote came after multiple votes to repeal the law. She later lent critical support for the Republican tax plan in December 2017 that fundamentally weakened the ACA. Health care advocates say that this vote set the stage for a legal argument that the entire program is unconstitutional.
“Gideon has provided more specificity than [Collins] has at least, and she’s been in office for what, 20 years?” Caper said.
From Woloson’s perspective, Gideon’s record in Augusta gives credence to her promises of reform.
“In our opinion, it is quite comprehensive and bold,” Woloson said of the agenda. “I think she is quite serious and sincere about doing what she can to improve access and affordability.”
In 2019, Gideon co-sponsored legislation with Rep. Troy Jackson (D-Allagash) to make it easier to import inexpensive generic drugs to Maine from Canada, a program she would look to expand on a federal level. Gideon and Jackson also passed a bill to create the Maine Prescription Drug Affordability Board to monitor and help regulate the cost of prescription drugs.
Gideon tenure as Speaker included the implementation of Maine’s expanded Medicaid program, which she support and which has provided health insurance for almost 60,000 Maine residents. Gov. Janet Mills completed the expansion mandated through a 2017 referendum when she took office in 2019.
Plan doesn’t ‘fix the foundation’
Gideon does not endorse Medicare for All or universal single-payer health care, the legislative solution backed by most progressive Democrats and introduced most recently in bills by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wa.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
Universal health care program is broadly popular among Maine Democratic voters—a CNN exit poll of voters in the Democratic primary in March found that 69 percent supported the program.
Gideon’s more moderate public option plan places her on the right of Maine’s congressional representatives, Rep. Jared Golden and Rep. Chellie Pingree, who both co-sponsored Jayapal’s house bill in 2019.
Another candidate for the senate seat, Green Independent Lisa Savage, has made Medicare for All a central plank of her campaign.
“What was already a simmering healthcare crisis has been brought to a rolling boil by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Savage in a statement this April. “The pandemic has exposed the crisis in the U.S. healthcare system and the urgent need for an improved Medicare for All health insurance system to ensure that all U.S. residents are able to get medical care when they get sick, with no exceptions.”
For Caper, Gideon’s plan is “incrementalist.” It makes positive changes to a broken system, but does not change the system’s overall structure.
“It’s like you have a house that’s slowly sinking into mud because the foundation is rotting,” Caper said. “No matter what you do to the house itself, it’s not going to solve the problem unless you fix the foundation.”
The public option — which would exist alongside for-profit private insurance companies and healthcare providers — would be like fixing the house and ignoring the foundation, according to Caper.
“We have to have a fundamentally different health care system, which means turning it into a public good rather than a commodity,” Caper said.
Photo: Sara Gideon speaks with voters during a tour of health care facilities across southern Maine on Aug. 25. \ Official campaign photo
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