Legislative health

Some members of the Maine Legislature would like better health insurance. Who wouldn’t? But their bill to extend members’ benefits has gone nowhere.

Under present law, legislators get lifetime health coverage only if they are 62 years old when they leave office. They gave quick initial passage last week to a bill that would have given 100 percent lifetime coverage starting at age 62 to any legislator who had served eight years, regardless of how old they were when they left office.

The bill was approved quietly – some would say sneakily – on voice votes on Monday and Tuesday, with no roll call, no debate and no objection.

Final votes were scheduled for Thursday and Friday. By that time, instead of being a shoo-in, the bill had become controversial.

Sure, the legislators make only $18,000 for a two-year term, not counting benefits. But some teachers objected that they work full-time for many years and get only 30 percent health benefits. Other people, who can’t afford any health insurance, resented seeing part-time lawmakers get lavish additional benefits, exceeding private-sector plans, at taxpayer expense.

Within a few days, a sizable backlash had developed. Some legislators stood by the bill, but others said they had changed their minds or hadn’t paid much attention to it or knew they would have another crack at it. On Thursday, the House voted 84 to 45 to postpone action indefinitely – in other words to kill the bill. On Friday, the Senate voted the same way, 32 to 0.

Something positive still can come out of this clumsy episode. That something would be for lawmakers, having recognized their own desire for health care, to work harder than before on helping the 170,000 Mainers with no coverage at all get anything close to the deal they were about to approve for themselves.