The latest number for enrollees of DirigoChoice health care coverage is positive news and is beyond what had been anticipated by Anthem, the insurer carrying the state-designed product. But Dirigo had always had a larger mission than to just offer affordable insurance. It is an attempt to bring order and efficiency to health care while raising quality. Maine is a long way from knowing whether that is possible, but there is good reason to stick with Dirigo’s plan to find out.

Gov. John Baldacci last week noted that as of May 1, 6,369 people had enrolled in DirigoChoice. Even before this number was released, Anthem officials had said the coverage was attracting many more enrollees than a typical new plan. So far, more than 450 small businesses statewide have signed on. But that is only half the good news.

The other half is that the governor has kept his commitment to expand health coverage to parents who earn up to 200 percent of poverty – annual incomes of about $32,000 for a family of three. Parents, experience has shown, are more likely to sign up their children for health care if they too can receive coverage. More than that, when lower-income residents remain uninsured, they are more likely to require more expensive treatment for illnesses that could have been treated more effectively and at lower cost had they been caught earlier and – despite the Department of Health and Human Services’ current Medicaid reimbursement disaster – are reimbursed rather than becoming bad debt and charity care for providers, who then are forced to shift costs onto private-pay patients.

Getting people in early, treating and monitoring chronic conditions, providing them with access to prescription-drug savings and providing caregivers with incentives for preventative care are all part of Dirigo. Medicaid expansions these days are controversial because in state after state they are recognized as budget-drainers, a major reason states are seeing structural shortfalls. Dirigo financing is more complicated than Medicaid – it relies on a combination of federal dollars, remaining start-up funding from the Legislature, a savings offset payment from care facilities, employer and employee contributions as well as Medicaid dollars.

It’s complicated, but it puts Maine ahead of other states. Governors and state legislators recently offered proposals for maintaining Medicaid services more affordably, including co-pays and deductibles for recipients with higher incomes and a variety of benefit packages that allow more people to receive at least some coverage. Reform of Medicaid is crucial: The health care system is currently unsustainable, rising in cost at about 10 percent a year, but as The New York Times reported Monday, the growth in Medicaid coincides with the shrinking number of employer-sponsored health plans.

Unless a public system continues to extend health coverage to an increasing number of Americans, the number of uninsured will rise, with harmful effects for everyone. Offering more parents coverage will reduce cost-shifting while offering improved health to Maine residents. It’s a step in the right direction.