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Jared Golden addresses Farmington crowd on universal health care

March 19, 2019

FARMINGTON — U.S. Rep. Jared Golden shared his support of universal health care for all citizens during a town hall meeting Tuesday at Franklin Memorial Hospital.

It was his first town hall since being elected in November, he said.

"It is my strong belief that the only way to get a strong health care system in place is to have universal coverage for every American citizen," Golden, D-Maine, said to the nearly 60 people in attendance.

He said three things were necessary for an efficient health care system.

"Efficient systems use universal coverage of some kind," he said. "Primary care has to be widely available, which is especially difficult in rural areas like Franklin County. Third, there has to be a streamlined billing and payment system.

"The United States ranks first among industrialized countries worldwide in health care expenditures. We rank somewhere around 30th in system efficiency."

The Lewiston resident said during door-to-door campaigning in Rumford, the top reason people told him they were unable to retire is because they had to wait until they were 65 to be eligible for Medicare.

"I like the idea of opening up Medicare for people to be able to buy into at age 50," he said.

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