(Editors note:  MAPP's Public Affairs Representative, Janis Petzel, MD, was interviewed for this story after presenting testimony to the Appropriations Committee regarding proposed Mainecare cuts.)

As protesters converged on the State House, members of the Legislature's Appropriations Committee heard from more than 100 Mainers opposed to Gov. Paul LePage's proposed MaineCare cuts, including many who rely on the programs the governor is targeting.

Marie Williams is a recovering stroke victim from Winslow, "I have no family to live with. Where am I going to live? And where will I go?" she asked.

Williams and others who depend on MaineCare programs are among the 65,000 Mainers who would be affected by LePage's proposed $220 million dollars in cuts over the balance of the state's two-year budget cycle. Many of those who came to the State House were concerned about program cuts affecting older Mainers living in group homes or facilities for the disabled.

"My name is Dan Nichols and I want to thank you with the opportunity to speak with you. I am a resident of Portland Center for Assisted Living. I have multiple sclerosis, which is a progressive degenerative neurological disease."

Nichols told the lawmakers that without places like the Portland Center, hospital emergency rooms would fill up with patients.

"And I believe that would translate into increased insurance costs for all the citizens of Maine and would be counter-productive," Nichols said. "I guess I feel that instead of laying off the staff at an assisted living facility, they should be canonized instead--they're all saints, unbelievable people."

"I moved to Maine 10 years ago," said Dr. Janis Petzel. "I moved here because I wanted to live in a place like Maine where neighbors take care of each other. I didn't really expect to be living in a place that was sort of anti-Robin Hood, where you're robbing the poor to help the rich. I mean that just doesn't seem like Maine to me."

Dr. Janis Petzel is a geriatric psychiatrist from Hallowell who says increasing the overall stress level for at-risk older Mainers coping with mental health issues is hardly a recipe for recovery. She says the MaineCare reductions would guarantee relapses for patients like hers living in Private Non-Medical Institutions, also known as PNMIs.

"If you don't have a roof over your head, you end up living in chaos and your mental illness ends up relapsing," she said. "The 6,000 people who are in PNMI services now will either have to go to a higher level of care or down to a lower level of care where they are going to fail and end up in the emergency rooms. You're going to end up with gridlock medically, people won't be able to be discharged from the hospital because there won't be a place for them to go."

Lawmakers on the panel also heard from Mainers whose basic health needs would disappear with the proposed MaineCare cuts. David Neverland is a Skowhegan resident who struggles with a disability and relies on Qualified Medicare Benefits under MaineCare, also known as "Quimby."

"My wife had a stroke this summer," Neverland said. "She almost died. The doctor says without QMB and our MaineCare, we can't even take her. We'd have to let her die. She's alive, she's here. I wouldn't be here without her, I couldn't take it. This does affect us. I can't even read this. It's just too much. It really is. Please help us. God be with you."

State Rep. John Martin, a Democrat from Eagle Lake, says he remains skeptical of many of the financial assumptions in the DHHS budget reduction package, which he says is still be evaluated to determine which costs are one-time adjustments and which are ongoing structural changes.

Martin says those who spoke during the public hearing sent a clear message: "Obviously adjustments need to be made but not in the way in which they've been presented to date."

Republican state Rep. Ken Fredette, of Newport, says the members of the committee empathize with those affected by the proposed cutbacks. But he said lawmakers have to balance the budget.

"These are very sad stories in many instances," Fredette says. "I'm very empathetic to their situation. But we have a job to do and it's a responsible job. We have a constitutional amendment to balance the budget. We have to have a balanced budget and so we will do our job much like prior legislatures have done. But it will be a lot of hard work."

Hearings before the committee will continue tomorrow morning.