HealthCare for All Maine is the 501(c)(4) political and advocacy arm of Maine AllCare.
Our Mission
HealthCare for All Maine promotes the establishment of publicly funded, high quality
health care coverage for all Maine residents. This system must be efficient, financially sound, politically sustainable and must provide benefits fairly distributed to all.
HealthCare for All Maine advocates that health care, a basic necessity, be treated as a public good, since it is fundamental to our well-being as individuals and as a democratic nation.
Our Key Principles
Universal Coverage: Every Maine resident is enrolled in the same system, regardless of health status, age, gender, place of residence, employment status or health history.
Cost Constraint: Reasonable prices are negotiated with pharmaceutical companies, providers, and suppliers of medical goods. Savings are seen from eliminating the current for-profit system.
Publicly funded: Every Maine resident contributes based on graduated taxes, which replace premiums. Bankruptcies due to medical expenses are eliminated.
Comprehensive: All medically necessary care, including preventive care, is covered.
Portable: Every Maine resident has the security of permanent, individual healthcare coverage, which is not tied to employment.
Provider-Directed Care: Providers, rather than insurance companies, have the freedom to make clinical decisions based on standard of care and individual needs.
Patient Choice: Every Maine resident has the freedom to choose providers and hospitals without worrying if they are “in-network.”
Simple & Efficient: A simpler system reduces waste, administrative costs and eliminates the current complexity of multiple insurers.
Public Good Over Profit: Healthcare is delivered as a public good just like roads, police, fire protection and education rather than as a source of profit.
Board of Directors
Ted Sussman, MD, MACP, Chair
Houlton – emdsussman@gmail.com
After training in internal medicine, Dr. Ted Sussman came to northern Maine with the National Health Service. He has been in Houlton for the past 42 years, except for his cardiology fellowship through the Mass General Hospital. He ran his own practice for over 35 years before transforming the practice to a Rural Health Clinic.
He has served as Governor of the Maine chapter of the American College of Physicians, and served as board member of the Maine Health Access Foundation.
Ted joined the Maine AllCare Board in October 2021, and is a co-founder of HealthCare for All Maine.
Geoff Gratwick MD, Vice-chair
Bangor – ggratwick@gmail.com
Dr. Gratwick practiced medicine as a rheumatologist in Bangor for over 35 years. He has served on the boards of Maine AllCare, Eastern Maine Medical Center, the Maine Humanities Council. He also served as a Bangor City Councilor for 9 years. He was elected to the Maine State Senate in November 2012, serving District 32, Bangor and Hermon. He was variously chair of the Health and Human Services and the Health Coverage, Insurance and Financial Services committees.
Geoff is very interested in public health and ways that we can spend our health dollars more effectively to cover all Maine citizens. He and his wife Lucy Quimby live on a small farm on the outskirts of Bangor where they raise sheep and are very involved in environmental activities. They have two grown children.
Geoff served on the Maine AllCare Board from 2012-2021, and is a co-founder of HealthCare for All Maine.
Julie Keller Pease, MD, Secretary
Topsham – jkpeasemd@gmail.com
Dr. Julie Pease hails from Minnesota, and has lived in Maine since 1987. She practiced psychiatry in Maine for over 25 years, and currently practices part-time in New Zealand, a country that has provided single-payer universal healthcare to its residents since 1948.
Julie is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and a past-president of the Maine Association of Psychiatric Physicians. She is a member of Physicians for a National Health Program, and she represents Maine on the Board of One Payer States, a national organization that fights to win high-quality, cost-effective health care for all.
Julie was a co-founder of Maine AllCare in 2010. She served as president of the board from 2011-2016, and returned to the Maine AllCare Board in January 2022. She is a co-founder of HealthCare for All Maine.
Les Fossel, Treasurer
Alna – fossel@oldhouserestoration.com
Les operates Restoration Resources, Maine’s premier historic building restoration company, founded in 1975 with 13 employees. He consults for numerous organizations and individuals around New England. His award-winning work has been featured in numerous publications.
A former Republican legislator, his Maine legislative service included: Moderate Caucus Chair, Judiciary Committee, Government Oversight Committee, Insurance & Financial Services Committee, Health & Human Services Committee, Congressional Reapportionment Committee, Healthcare Reform Select Committee.
Les serves on the boards of Maine AllCare, LincolnHealth, Wiscasset & Quebec Railroad, the Lincoln County Dental, Eldercare Network of Lincoln County, and on the Advisory Board of Maine Preservation.
Les joined the Maine AllCare Board in 2015, and has been a member of the Executive and the Legislative and Policy committees. He is a co-founder of HealthCare for All Maine
Beth Franklin
Cumberland – bethfranklin@rheritage.com
Beth is a native of Mississippi and moved to Maine from the Washington, DC, area in 1992, where she was employed in the Regulatory Affairs Department of AT&T. In Maine, she continued working for AT&T in national account sales, serving clients such as LL Bean, IDEXX Laboratories, and UNUM. Beth ultimately retired with the spin-off company, Avaya. Following her retirement, she became a licensed real estate agent and currently works with REMAX Heritage in Yarmouth.
Aside from work endeavors, Beth has been an active volunteer, both in her community and in her church. She was elected to serve on the board of directors for the Junior League of Washington, DC., and the Junior League of Portland. Beth was elected to the Falmouth School Board in 2005 and served as chair of the Policy Committee for four years, and then as Chair for two years. She also serves on the board of the Preachers Aid Society, a United Methodist foundation that provides support for retired ministers. She served as the children’s choir director and the Sunday School Superintendent for Tuttle Road United Methodist Church.
Beth served on the Maine AllCare board for 9 years, and is a co-founder of HealthCare for All Maine.
Henk Goorhuis, MD, FACEP
Auburn – goorhuis@roadrunner.com
Dr. Goorhuis has been an Emergency Medicine Physician for 30 years. He was an emergency department director in New York for 2 years before moving to Maine. He has worked at several urban and rural hospitals in Maine. Henk served on a Brunswick, Maine hospital board for 5 years. He was the treasurer for a clean elections candidate in Auburn, Maine for four election cycles.
Henk has been a board member of Maine AllCare since 2015 and served as the Maine AllCare board chair from 2016-2021. He is interested in healthcare policy, giving multiple presentations to professional groups, with a focus on healthcare financing and reform. He is a co-founder of HealthCare for All Maine.
Peter Murray, Esq.
Portland – pmurray@gwi.net
Peter Murray is a well-known and respected figure in the Maine legal community, having practiced in the Portland area – and internationally – for more than 50 years. A Murray Plumb & Murray founding partner, Peter practiced law at the firm from 1973 until 1993 focusing on general law as well as trial and litigation. From 1993 through 2007, he was a full-time visiting professor of law at Harvard Law School. Peter returned to Murray Plumb & Murray in July 2007 as of counsel with a focus in the areas of estate planning, business and corporate law, and litigation and trial consulting.
Peter is a co-founder of Healthcare for All Maine.
Healthcare for All Maine 