LaMarche Calls for Medical Schools in Maine

Green Party gubernatorial candidate Pat LaMarche on July 6th called for Maine to manufacture doctors, dentists and pharmacists, as the cornerstone of better healthcare and economic recovery. LaMarche said that it is her goal that students entering their freshman year in college this September will have the option of attending an allopathic medical school, or a dental school, or a pharmacy school in Maine when they graduate.

Calling upon the recommendations as put forth by the 1995 Maine Healthcare Reform Commission, LaMarche cited the need for Maine to steward the education of its own healthcare providers.

“This isn’t a new idea; it’s just a good idea.” said LaMarche. “If we want our kids to stay in Maine, if we want them to have high-paying jobs, if we want healthcare extended into our most rural areas, and if we want businesses to locate outside the few business centers we have in Maine, then we need the educational opportunities and the healthcare accessibility that these schools provide.”

Maine once had an MD-granting medical school, at Bowdoin College However, like so many medical schools at the turn of the twentieth century, they did not keep up with the rapidly- changing and advancing science available, and became obsolete, according to the LaMarche campaign.

LaMarche emphasized the positive financial impact that educating medical professionals will have upon the state.

Maine has an osteopathic medical school in Biddeford, but lacks doctoral programs in medicine, dentistry and pharmacology. LaMarche said she fully supports the University of New England’s push for a pharmacy school to further advance the careers of Maine students. She said she will push for similar educational opportunities for students in the Bangor area.