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Public Law 469, commonly referred to as the Dirigo Health Reform Act, is a system-wide health reform law passed in June 2003. Among the law's goals, according to www.maine.gov, is "to afford access to coverage to every man, woman and child in Maine within five years and to bring down the cost growth of health care in Maine."
Question: Is Dirigo Health Plan delivering on the promise?
LEFT LANE:Sean Faircloth
Chris Kelley, cofounder of Bricknet Information Technologies in Bangor, had been looking for affordable, quality health coverage. He didn't find it until he looked at DirigoChoice.
"DirigoChoice creates a solid balance between what I can afford each month and what my employees can afford because they can receive discounts. It's a quality plan at an affordable price-that's all we've been asking for!" If we help one IT business in Maine, that's important
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In fact, Dirigo Health has helped 2,000 Maine business owners find affordable insurance. Small business is the heart of Maine. Those businesses voted in favor of Dirigo by enrolling. Over 7,000 people are covered by DirigoChoice. According to the Bureau of Insurance, Dirigo saved Maine's healthcare system approximately $43 million.
Some partisans seek to cut Maine businesses off from an insurance program that works for them. Those opponents must explain to these 2,000 Maine businesses what better alternative is available. Given the benefit to Maine businesses, could this attack on Dirigo have more to do with hopes to prevent the governor's reelection than with facts? I know and like the Republican candidates for governor, but facts are facts. As of this writing, none of these candidates have specified how they would have found affordable health care for these Maine businesses.
According to Anthem, enrollment rates for DirigoChoice are significantly higher than other new insurance products. Maine's large insurance companies agreed in 2003 that savings should be passed on to consumers and businesses. They must stick with that commitment now that $43 million in savings have come to fruition, according to the superintendent of insurance. Small Maine businesses deserve these savings; they don't deserve election year partisanship. In addition to small business, the human impact on individual Maine citizens is important. Dirigo's companion program has also covered 4,000 parents in addition to the 7,500 Mainers enrolled in DirigoChoice, for a total of over 11,000 Maine people covered.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation and as reported in the Lewiston Sun Journal, Maine is one of seven states (and the only New England state) to reduce its number of uninsured between 2000 and 2004.
In less than one year, Dirigo Health achieved many of its goals-increasing access, reducing the growth of costs, and improving quality.
Trust me. If Governor Pataki [R-New York] or Governor Romney [R-Massachusetts] could boast a similar percentage of businesses in their state utilizing a new insurance product, those Republicans would be touted nationwide as innovative champions of small business.
A political action committee, not coincidentally organized by Republican politicians, is spending money on ads attacking Dirigo. There is no shame in Democrats or Republicans pointing to proven errors in the policy choices of the other party. That is both good politics and good policy. Unfortunately, that's not the case here.
This PAC money attack on Dirigo is a back-door attempt to undermine Baldacci's re-election. Two thousand Maine businesses benefiting from Dirigo should not be punished in order to serve political goals unrelated to the merits of Dirigo.
Rep. Sean Faircloth [D-Bangor] is a lawyer and professor of justice studies at University College of Bangor.
RIGHT LANE: Scott K Fish
Baloney season is in full bloom. Example: the nonstop mixed messages about Governor Baldacci's Dirigo Health Plan (DHP). Dirigo is the governor's two-part, state-run health insurance combining Medicaid and a subsidized health plan for individuals, sole proprietors, and small businesses called DirigoChoice.
As I write, the Maine State Employees Union (MSEU) is funding radio ads glorifying DHP/Baldacci for, they claim, saving millions of dollars while insuring thousands of uninsured/underinsured Mainers.
Meanwhile, an email arrives here. Tarren Bragdon is writing about Dirigo for Heartland Institute, saying Dirigo "is hemorrhaging money and faltering, according to [the Baldacci administration's own] figures."
Who's giving the Dirigo facts and no baloney?
Tarren Bragdon, a former Maine legislator representing part of Bangor, is a policy analyst for the Maine Heritage Policy Center, and a Dirigo expert. He leads the MHPC's "DirigoWatch," a publication dedicated to keeping Dirigo from escaping to the Land of Make Believe and sending false messages back to Maine.
The MSEU, in contrast, could have enrolled all its members in Dirigo. But the MSEU said, No thanks, we'll keep our gold-plated, taxpayer-subsidized health insurance program.
Why is the MSEU raving about a program they snubbed? Raw politics.
I'll stick with Bragdon's Dirigo information. Numbers don't lie.
Governor Baldacci (June 2003) told us his Dirigo Plan would provide health insurance to 135,000 Maine uninsured/underinsured residents within five years, with no new taxes, while lowering health insurance costs for all Maine residents.
Not true. Bragdon: "Since January 1, 2005, 8,500 people have enrolled in DirigoChoice. But...[o]ne in seven people (14%) . . . dropped the plan after . . . less than 10 months."
Bragdon cites an August 2005 Muskie School study showing that only 22.4% of DirigoChoice policyholders had no health insurance when they signed on. That suggests:
* Most DirigoChoice policyholders dropped their private sector health insurance to get subsidized by Maine taxpayers, and
* DirigoChoice has providedcoverage to just 1,635 uninsured persons in 10 months.
Meaning, writes Bragdon, "the estimated annual cost to Maine taxpayers for each uninsured person covered by DirigoChoice is over $15,900."
Baldacci used $54 million meant for tax relief to start Dirigo. Now he's taxing all health insurance claims paid in Maine ($44 million) to keep Dirigo afloat.
What's better? Competition! Freedom over socialism. Let Mainers buy health insurance nationwide. My $444 monthly Maine policy costs $150 per month in Texas.
In 1993, Maine forced insurance companies writing Maine health policies to insure everyone (guaranteed issue) and to not use age as a cost consideration (community rating). That killed competition, sent our health costs skyrocketing. Republican lawmakers want to fix these health mandates so we can have more choices of better health insurance.
Dirigo Health is step one on the march toward total state-run health care. It is failing and taking Maine's healthcare system down, too. If that system goes, Maine will be a training ground for marginal doctors. We'll be their patients!
Call your legislators. Tell them Dirigo is bad medicine.
Scott K Fish is technology director/marketing manager for the Maine Heritage Policy Center and owner/editor of www.asmainegoes.com.
