MAINE (CONT)

Besides giving all Mainers access to coverage and controlling costs of the system, a priority of the new program is to assure quality of care.

While it will be months before Dirigo's first clients are signed up, Baldacci sees encouraging signs already in slower rates of growth in insurance premiums in the small group market.

"This is heartening news and mirrors recent reports from hospitals that the health care industry is taking Dirigo Health seriously and has begun to comply with its request for voluntary cost constraints," the governor said.

The conservative Maine Heritage Policy Center, which has been scrutinizing the program, says the drop in insurance premium rates "is as attributable to Dirigo Health as it is to the weather."

The center's executive director, Bill Becker, said the drop in health care premium increases is part of a national trend as the insurance industry responds to an unsustainable skein of fee increases and competition from smaller carriers.
Becker's group labels Dirigo "fiscally unsound," warning that it will increase Maine's Medicaid caseload as the state faces a potential $113 million Medicaid shortfall and considers cutbacks in the program.

It also says that past expansions of Medicaid have not significantly reduced the rates of uninsured Mainers.
For people like Sandra Flynn, Dirigo cannot start up soon enough.

Flynn, her self-employed husband and their three children have been without insurance for nearly 10 years. It's not that they don't care, but the Flynns find the $16,000 annual premium with $5,000 deductible to be excessive.

Flynn, who works part-time in a local school, is anxious to see what the rates will be under the Dirigo plan.
"It certainly has to be better than living with no insurance," she said.

Published on Saturday, December 27, 2003 by the Associated Press

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