Right now it is hard to know what's going on with our health insurance system. A few days ago, Trump announced yet more actions designed to undermine people's access to health care. I think the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is deeply flawed. In many ways it has been a huge giveaway to greedy insurance companies who cater to their stockholders and the enormous bank accounts of their CEOS. However, thanks to the ACA, I, along with many millions more, finally had reliable access to health insurance. 

The ACA is flawed. But you don't try to fix it by making it even worse, by making people even more at the mercy of insurance companies who care far more about the bottom line than about the health of the people they should be serving.

Trump's recent actions are intended to destabilize the entire health care system. At first, I thought that his ending federal government reimbursements to insurance companies meant I would lose my insurance. But with further information, it appears that the two remaining individual ACA insurers in Maine had prepared for this, so supposedly I can still get coverage.

My insurer, Anthem, recently abruptly announced it would leave the individual ACA market in Maine, partly because of the instability the Republican-led Congress have been threatening. This means that I and many other Mainers will have to reapply at healthcare.gov starting November 1 when the ACA market opens back up.

If my current understanding holds true, and if no other huge actions are taken to destroy the ACA, many of us will be able to get health insurance for a similar price and coverage to what we had this year.

But my understanding is that due to Trump's actions, people in different income brackets than mine, or with more serious health issues, or because of their age, etc., are going to face a far worse and more expensive system. This is absolutely unacceptable! 

There is enough to go around, but the system is intentionally being kept unfair so that we will be too busy being angry at one another, thinking some of us are freeloaders, or that some of us have much better deals than others, to see who is actually the primary beneficiaries of the inequity. These beneficiaries want to keep us distracted and angry at each other so that we don't see that universal, fair, non-profit excellent quality health care is possible. 

We can't control everything at the federal level. BUT we do have one wonderful thing coming up on voting day in Maine regarding expanding health care access! Referendum question 2 asks if we want to participate in Medicaid Expansion. This would result in 70,000 more Mainers getting health insurance, with the federal government reimbursing nearly all the expenses. It appears that for now, this part of the ACA will remain in place.

I can tell you that when I lived in New York state, which had a strong commitment to expanding health care access, including participation in Medicaid Expansion, the health care situation was FAR better and more affordable than what I have encountered being back in my home state of Maine for the past year-and-a-half. 

I want us to have the best possible health care access for ALL OF US. Please Vote YES on 2 on November 7 to expand health care to 70,000 Mainers.

After that passes, we will need to keep pushing for a health-care-for-all system that is non-profit, fair, and universal, so that everyone has access to excellent health care. It is the only way forward.

Becca Shaw Glaser lives in Rockland