MILLINOCKET – When Great Northern Paper Inc.’s interim health care plan runs out next month, more than 1,300 retirees and displaced workers may be left with no insurance.

Trish Riley, who heads Gov. John Baldacci’s new Office of Health Policy and Finance, is working to ensure that doesn’t happen.

Riley and other state officials hope to have a new health plan in place by the end of next month for the thousands of Mainers who have lost their health insurance as the result of foreign competition. The new plan will include GNP retirees and displaced workers.

Great Northern went bankrupt because of foreign competition, according to company officials. The pending sale of Great Northern to Brascan Corp. makes no provision for health care for retirees or nonemployees.

Laid-off GNP employees and 677 people who retired from both the paper company and Pinkham Lumber Co. since 1992 now are receiving limited coverage for prescriptions, urgent and emergency care as part of a $1.9 million interim health plan approved by a federal bankruptcy court judge last month. The interim plan will run out on April 29 or whenever the sale of the paper company is complete.

Adam Thompson, special assistant in the Office of Health Policy and Finance, said Riley and others are working hard to secure a $15 million federal grant through the Trade Adjustment Assistance Act.

Thompson said state officials are cautiously optimistic about receiving the grant within a few weeks. He said the federal grant would be used to set up a plan for all Mainers who have lost their health care as the result of foreign competition. He said that once the state receives the grant, officials plan to submit emergency legislation to create the new health plan.

He said officials are talking with Maine state employees to have them administer the new plan. Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield provides coverage to the state employees group and could cover the plan. He said officials are considering using one of Anthem’s standard plans typically used by small groups. He said the plan includes prescription drug coverage.

Thompson estimates the cost of Anthem’s standard plans to be less than $400 a month. He said the federal grant would pay for about 65 percent of the cost, or about $260 a month, leaving the individual to pay about $140 a month.

Diane Khiel, an Orono attorney working with GNP retirees, expressed concern about whether they are receiving the health treatments they need. “I’m sure there are all kinds of procedures and operations that have been delayed because they weren’t considered urgent or emergency services,” she said. “I wonder how much of a health impact that this has had on people.”

Khiel said there are alternative health plans such as the one Riley and state officials are working on. She said it is important that retirees look for an alternative health plan so they have continuing coverage. Khiel said that if retirees go without a health care plan and later decide to enroll in a plan, pre-existing health conditions might not be covered.

Khiel said there are two different deadlines for enrolling in a new plan to ensure continuing coverage status – 60 days or 90 days – depending on the type of the previous insurance coverage. She said she has not been able to verify whether GNP’s interim health plan would be considered a self-insured plan, which falls under the 60-day deadline.

She is urging retirees to have an alternative plan in place within 60 days of the interim plan expiring to ensure pre-existing medical conditions are covered by their new plan.

Judith Chamberlain, the deputy superintendent of the Maine Insurance Bureau, agreed.

Chamberlain said GNP’s interim health plan fell into a “gray” area. She said the deadline under fully insured plans was 90 days, and 60 days for self-insured plans.

Jim Mingo of Millinocket, a GNP retiree who has lost his company-paid health insurance, said he is concerned about losing his health coverage.