Health insurance reform was the topic of the week in Augusta. House and Senate Republicans sponsored several bills this session to open up health insurance competition and reduce rates. The experience of other states across the nation shows the reforms we are proposing can lower the high cost of premiums, leave more health care choices in the hands of taxpayers, and reduce the bureaucratic burden placed on health care providers and hospitals.

The high medical costs Mainers have experienced over the past decade are the direct result of bureaucratic meddling by previous administrations and legislators, not just rising costs of health care itself. The mandates imposed since 1992 make it difficult or nearly impossible for insurance carriers to operate in Maine. Our citizens deserve the same choices for affordable health care that currently exist in other states.

As the owner of a small business, I’ve dealt firsthand with the rising costs of health insurance for my employees and I understand the problems they’ve had securing it on their own prior to joining our company. I’m pleased to be part of a plan that can address these issues with creative bills sponsored by Republican legislators. Two bills focus on the creation of a “high-risk” pool and the elimination of burdensome mandates, including “community rating” (rates on the entire state population rather than the individual) and “guaranteed issue” (requires a policy be granted to anyone who applies, regardless of medical condition or history). Both factors drive rates up.

Another bill would allow Mainers to purchase policies from companies in other states, something currently barred by Maine law.

It is motivating to realize no one legislator is focusing on this issue alone. It is a force of unanimity among Republicans, and hopefully a movement that will attract Demo-crats as well.

There are now more than a half-dozen bills pending that could correct the inequities in our healthcare systems and specifically in the availability of affordable insurance. With approval of these pending bills, Maine citizens could again have a true choice in their health insurance options. The directives added to our insurance regulations over the past decade have done little more than increase your costs and reduce your choices. The insurance industry is a business. It wants and needs to be competitive. Current Maine law has stymied that competition and driven competitors out of state.

Opponents to these legislative changes don’t want you to know that Maine is one of just five states in the country where insurance premiums are often twice as high as other states. The remaining states changed their legislation much the way these bills would change Maine’s, and competition and lower premiums returned.

Recent administrations responded to rising health care and insurance costs by creating new subsidies, ultimately a cost to the taxpayer.

We don’t want to perpetuate that problem. We want to solve it. We can do it with support for new legislation removing the barriers to competition. Access to health insurance is moot, if we don’t address affordability.

Sen. Debra Plowman, R-Hampden, represents District 33.