Health care to top debate in ’06 governor’s race

AUGUSTA – Maine’s universal health care initiative is bound to be a major campaign issue next year when Gov. John Baldacci seeks re-election, the Democratic governor and leading opponents of his Dirigo Health program agreed Friday.

“I think it will be, there’s no question about it,” said Baldacci, whose promises four years ago led to the creation of the program. “When I was running for office, people didn’t want a campaign issue that ended after the campaign was over. They wanted us to come up with a real solution. Dirigo is a real solution.”

Jason Fortin of the Maine Heritage Policy Center, a persistent critic of the program, agreed that Dirigo and health care reform in general will be prominent issues of debate as the campaign gets rolling. While acknowledging that health care costs are a real problem, Fortin said the solutions are in market reforms.

Baldacci said a Strategic Marketing Services survey of 400 Maine adults, in which 69 percent said they support Dirigo Health, reflects what he hears from business owners and individuals statewide. In the July survey, 19 percent said they oppose the program while 12 percent didn’t know.

But the high level of support is down from the 84 percent who supported it in February, with only 11 percent opposed and 5 percent who didn’t know.

Fortin predicted that support will continue to erode “as more Mainers see the program is failing and learn of the great costs associated with it.”

Baldacci’s first priority after he was sworn in early in 2003 was to launch a program to secure health insurance for 130,000 Mainers who lack it and others who have inadequate coverage. Currently, 8,100 Mainers have coverage through a product called DirigoChoice, administered through Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield.

More than 3,000 individuals and sole proprietors are now on a waiting list for DirigoChoice. Enrollment had to be capped for individuals and small businesses so the provider could limit its risk as the program grew, Baldacci said. Individuals and sole proprietors may sign up again this November for coverage beginning in January.

A survey of DirigoChoice enrollees by the University of Southern Maine’s Muskie School of Public Service showed nearly 40 percent had been uninsured, uninsured sometime during the past year or had only temporary coverage. It suggested that many Mainers who have some form of coverage cannot afford deductibles.

In addition, the survey showed that DirigoChoice enrollees are finding out about the program through the media and TV commercials, not through insurance agents, who promote other policies.

That prompted Baldacci to tape commercials for television stations statewide in which he pitches the program. Baldacci said he also wants to reassure Mainers the program isn’t going away.

“They don’t know, because of the constant attacks, whether it will be there for the long term,” the governor said.

Maine Heritage says the Muskie survey’s findings highlight DirigoChoice’s weaknesses. If only 22 percent of the program’s enrollees were uninsured when they signed up, as the survey says, then it costs $8,400 to cover each of those people per year, according to critics.

“This insurance product is clearly not a good deal for Maine taxpayers,” said Tarren Bragdon, health reform director for Maine Heritage. “There are other more affordable solutions to reducing the uninsured.”

Baldacci said the personal stories people tell him provide the most convincing justification for Dirigo.

In Biddeford, a woman told him she’s being treated for colon cancer, which was found through screening that was covered through DirigoChoice. The woman said the cancer wouldn’t have been found if it weren’t for the health program.

The governor said he also hears frustrations of those faced with the high cost of insurance, such as an employer who said he can’t pay his workers enough so they can afford coverage.

“I get cards and letters from people every day,” said Baldacci, adding that he prides Maine for trying to advance universal coverage while the federal government fails to make health coverage available to all.