Maine U.S. Senate hopeful Graham Platner drew yet another packed crowd to a town hall Tuesday night in South Portland, but this one had a different focus than usual: It called for taxing the rich to fund health care.
Attendee Spencer Lukens of Cumberland said that as a mechanic, he's fortunate to have health insurance though his wife's employer. But he described the current U.S. health care system as "barbaric."
"I don't have another word for it," he said. "I think it's cruel and inhumane to not give people health care. We're the richest nation in the history of the world, so the idea that we don't have universal health care is just illogical. It's a system of greed."
Platner supports universal health care, telling the the crowd, "When you often talk about universal health care, people say things like, 'How do you pay for it?' Well you already do. We already do pay for it. We have the most expensive health care on Earth."
It's a message that resonates with Rebecca Connolly of Portland, who said that she was uninsured for most of her 20s.
"I know what that feels like and I know the stress of those bills," she said. "And it doesn't have to be like that."
Platner also used the event to promote several Democratic bills before the Maine Legislature this session that would increase taxes on higher incomes as well as a bill that would reform the state's rape kit examination program.
