Over the past several years my constituents have told me repeatedly that access to affordable health insurance was one of their most pressing concerns. I know this sentiment has been widespread and heard across our state and nation, and is shared by Maine citizens regardless of their political affiliation, community or profession. Dirigo Health, enacted in 2003, has been Maine’s serious and aggressive attempt to find a remedy to our health coverage crisis.

Since January of this year, over 8,100 people from across our state have enrolled in Dirigo Health, a first-in-the-nation public-private health insurance product. On the small island town of Vinalhaven alone, just one of the communities in my State House district, 34 people have already signed up for Dirigo Health and now have access to quality, comprehensive health insurance benefits.

These Vinalhaven residents are all hard-working island people with diverse health insurance situations before enrolling in Dirigo Health. Some people were small business owners who were looking for a way to cover their employees, many were self-employed fishermen and carpenters who were previously uninsured, while others were families whose insurance prior to Dirigo was a $5,000 or $10,000 deductible policy.

And the experiences of Vinalhaven residents are being felt statewide. Just look at the numbers: 112 people have enrolled in Bangor, along with 60 in Rockland, 53 in Caribou, 38 in Blue Hill, 64 in York, 344 in Portland, 42 in Fort Kent and six in the small town of Pembroke.

In an Aug. 25 BDN op-ed my colleague, Rep. Stephen Bowen, suggested that Dirigo Health is off to a slow start, that it might not be meeting the needs of Maine people, and he goes so far as to question how long we should continue Dirigo Health. He also argues that the insurance product has failed to meet the expectations many legislators and Mainers had when the original Dirigo legislation passed through the Maine House and Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support, including the positive vote of Rep. Bowen.

As the House chair of the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee, I feel compelled to let people know about the tremendous impact this new insurance product already has had, despite the number of detractors the program has attracted.

The real story is that enrollment for the Dirigo Health Plan is growing faster than any other new insurance plan in the state. More than 3,000 people have signed up just in the last three months and more than 2,000 businesses are now enrolled. Maine businesses, small business owners and families are in need of affordable, quality health insurance. Through Dirigo, thousands of Maine people and families have found quality coverage they can afford.

The overall goal of Dirigo Health is to work toward the goal of universal access to health coverage in Maine by 2009, while also providing a more affordable insurance product for small businesses, the uninsured and the underinsured, those people whose coverage carries such a high deductible that their insurance only is useful in catastrophic situations.

Dirigo was never intended to be only for the uninsured. It was quite clear during the birth of Dirigo that the Legislature, with support from the business community, planned to make the product available to businesses already offering insurance – and ideally with better coverage at comparable or lower costs. It would have been unfair to allow only some businesses to benefit from Dirigo’s superior quality and lower costs. Dirigo was supported by the Chamber of Commerce and was an important part of a larger effort to help Maine’s small businesses lower their costs while also improving the lives of Maine’s small business employees.

There are still 136,000 Maine people who are uninsured and thousands more under-insured. People in either situation know all too well what the costs are of going without proper insurance or health care – whether it means avoiding preventative care or bearing family health care costs by going into debt. We know that the uninsured and underinsured often end up getting care in hospital emergency rooms, which has proven the most costly place to serve those in need of health care services. And we also know that when those without adequate insurance can’t pay their bills, it affects all of us through cost shifting and burdens on our hospitals.

Dirigo enjoyed broad bipartisan support during its evolution and passage through the Legislature. The current partisan efforts to undermine this young health insurance plan are misleading. These attacks ignore the obvious successes and will clearly be a concern to those Mainers who are actively considering enrolling their employees or family in Dirigo.

Efforts like Dirigo Health are not easy. Every state in the nation is struggling with similar issues, and many states are experimenting with different solutions. Dirigo is unique and other states are watching and learning from us. Dirigo has always been an effort to provide Maine families with the safety and security of an affordable health plan. Partisan games will only erode the trust that has been built with those newly insured Mainers and the public.

There is no question that it is crucial that we continue to learn from Dirigo’s successes and shortcomings, and I hope we can continue to work together to refine the program. As legislators, we can all have a hand in ensuring that Dirigo has a chance to succeed for the sake of the future health of thousands of Maine people.

Rep. Hannah Pingree, D-North Haven, represents Brooklin, Deer Isle, Frenchboro, Isle au Haut, North Haven, Stonington, Swan’s Island, Tremont, Vinalhaven and part of Mount Desert. Pingree is serving her second term and is the House chair of the Health and Human Services Committee.