Baldacci willing to deal
Governor John Baldacci says he is willing to deal on Dirigo — to discuss significant changes to the Dirigo Health Plan.
In a telephone interview, he says he agrees with Dana Connors’s proposal for a blue-ribbon commission to study how Dirigo’s operation and financing could be changed.
Baldacci even is open to the idea that General Fund money can be used in the long run to fund the program — but not in the short run, he says: “We started this on the original thesis there is enough money in the health care system to fund Dirigo,” and “we have to resolve the first year” that way.
He thinks it is only fair that Anthem and other insurance companies pay back what he says Dirigo has saved them—particularly because Anthem was given $20 million by Dirigo that, he says, it turns out the company doesn’t need because people covered by DirigoChoice do not have health risks greater than other health-insurance subscribers.
“We need to all sit down together to make sure we have the funding to get through April of next year,” the governor says — then see what the blue-ribbon commission comes up with: “For the long term I am willing to put everything on the table.” He says he is now working with Democratic legislative leadership to settle the outstanding issues around Dirigo.
He finds Republicans hypocritical, however, when they talk about immediately financing Dirigo from the General Fund: “One minute they’re talking about how we can’t do anything about highways and bridges because we don’t have the funds, but when we’ve built up a little reserve they want to spend it.”
He’s open to alternative approaches for Dirigo in matters other than funding. One possibility, he says, is that Maine can learn from the Massachusetts law—recently passed with great national fanfare — that, like Dirigo, has covering the uninsured as its chief goal. Since it requires all people in the state to have health insurance—low-income people would have their premiums subsidized — he calls it a “pay to play” system.
He recognizes that “we need to do more” to get more people signed up with Dirigo: “Nobody’s ever done this before,” he says of the goal of insuring all of Maine’s uninsured.
He also feels strongly that, instead of letting Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield continue to market DirigoChoice health insurance, the Legislature should pass LD 1845, the bill to let the state do it directly — or perhaps in collaboration with other insurance companies like State Farm insurance, he suggests, that don’t have competing health-insurance products.
“They are not the most enthusiastic sellers,” he says of Anthem. “I don’t think they want the competition.”
He also supports LD 1935, the bill to prevent insurance companies from passing through on insurance premiums the state’s Savings Offset Plan assessment to support Dirigo. “There cannot be an additional assessment on people,” he says.
Baldacci appears to welcome Dirigo as a campaign issue: “We have to make sure health care is front and center. Additional health care is an important issue.”
_LT
