Fund for a Healthy Maine
The Fund for a Healthy Maine (FHM) was created by the Maine Legislature in 1999 to receive and disburse Maine’s annual tobacco settlement payments. Maine participated in the national tobacco settlement because many Maine people have suffered disease and death as a result of tobacco use. The Fund remains Maine's primary investment in public health and preventative healthcare. With healthcare costs on the rise, it is more important than ever to use the Fund for its designated purpose: prevent costly, chronic illness and promote healthy living.
The FHM is again under attack this legislative session.
Recent FHM Activity:
- FHM 2013 impacts if Governor's budget is passed
- Friends of the Fund testimony on LR2847, Governor's second supplemental budget
- Press Release: Doctors and Businesses Say Tobacco Settlement Key to Maine’s Future, December 16, 2011
- MPHA Testimony: LR 2678—An Act To Make Supplemental Appropriations and Allocations for the Expenditures of State Government and To Change Certain Provisions of the Law Necessary to the Proper Operations of State Government, December 16, 2011
- Final Report of the Commission to Study Allocations of the Fund For A Healthy Maine, December 2011
- OPEGA Report: Fund for a Healthy Maine Programs–Frameworks Adequate for Ensuring Cost-Effective Activities but Fund Allocations Should be Reassessed; Cost Data and Transparency Can Be Improved, October 2009
- 22 M.R.S.A § 1511: Fund for a Healthy Maine established, 1999
- Fact Sheets, Talking Points, and Graphs
Protecting the Fund for a Healthy Maine is Good for Maine People and Businesses
The Fund for a Healthy Maine works! Helping smokers quit, giving kids a healthy start, supporting new parents, helping families get active, teaching students about healthy choices, and engaging communities in every corner of Maine: each one leads to a brighter future for all of us. Why would we dismantle one of Maine’s biggest success stories? Investments in prevention and public health save lives and reduce the burden of chronic disease on individuals and families.
Healthy families are key to lowering health care costs and sustaining a strong economy. When people are healthy, children do better in school, workers are more productive, and businesses can add jobs because health costs are lower. This is why it’s more important than ever that we continue to use the Fund for a Healthy Maine for what it was intended to do: promote good health and prevent costly disease.
Maine’s economic recovery depends on bringing down the cost of health care for businesses, and that’s what the Fund for a Healthy Maine is designed to do. Maine business leaders consistently identify lowering health costs as the single most important priority for lawmakers to address in their efforts to spur new economic growth. In fact, over 160 businesses signed on to a letter supporting the FHM when the Administration proposed cuts last year.
This proposal ignores the recommendations of the legislators, the State Health Officer and other public health professionals who served on the FHM Commission. From the Report: “the Commission recognizes the importance of investments in public health and prevention and believes that the original intent of the funding should be maintained and efforts should be made to eliminate health disparities”
The public health impacts in this budget proposal are enormous. Maine saves $7.50 per $1.00 spent on prevention efforts. Many of the services in the Fund for a Healthy Maine make short-term returns as well. For example, the Massachusetts Medicaid program realized a savings of $3.21 during the current year for every $1.00 invested. Cuts to public health and prevention efforts are short sighted.
What the 119th Legislature established was truly visionary – investing in the prevention of disease and promotion of good health today in order to reduce health costs in the long run. What great long-term thinking and a wonderful legacy. Now is not the time to go backwards.
The FHM is as much a key to Maine’s future economic success as education and energy costs. Without a healthy workforce and lower health costs, Maine cannot compete with other states. Dismantling the FHM for a short-term budget fix is selling out our children’s future and locking us in to at least a generation of economic mediocrity. There are far more productive ways to fix this.
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