LaMarche unveils health care plan

AUGUSTA – Green Independent gubernatorial candidate Pat LaMarche called Thursday for the creation of a Maine Healthcare Authority that would administer a lifetime health care system for all Mainers financed in part by taxes on employers.

“Most of the world’s industrialized countries provide universal health care for their citizens,” the LaMarche plan says in a section titled “The Solution.”

“Countries that use a universal system provide better health care at less cost for more citizens than the U.S. ‘system.’ The LaMarche Healthcare Plan is a universal system.”

LaMarche’s plan envisions having the state petition for the release of federal Medicaid funds for incorporation into the new system and direct billing of the federal government for expenses incurred by federal employees living in Maine.

Private employer taxes would be based on wages paid to employees and the size of a business. Based on the number of employees, employers would pay between 5 percent and 12 percent of employees’ wages to the state, with the revenue going to the healthcare authority.

Surplus revenue would build up in a rainy day fund administered by the authority. Tax rates would be lowered if the fund reaches $500 million.

While employers would pay a new tax for health care, they would save money overall because they would no longer have to pay large premiums to private insurers, LaMarche said in an interview.

“We haven’t met an employer who wouldn’t save money,” LaMarche said. “For small businesses, it’s going to be their new best friend.”

Calling Gov. John Baldacci’s Dirigo health insurance program an inevitable failure due to its design, LaMarche framed her intentions at a State House news conference 10 days ago.

On Thursday, her campaign distributed a package of details, including the funding mechanism, in conjunction with a presentation by the candidate at the Harraseeket Inn in Freeport.

LaMarche’s plan also envisions the development of graduate schools to train medical doctors, dentists and pharmacists as steps toward alleviating what it describes as a shortage of health care providers in Maine.

The LaMarche plan asserts that most businesses would reap “enormous savings” compared to current expenditures on employee health care insurance premiums.

It also suggests that businesses outside the state would come to Maine “in droves” to take advantage of a universal provision of health care for workers.

According to the LaMarche plan, workers’ compensation medical costs incurred by businesses would be eliminated, as would cost-shifting linked to providing health care to the uninsured.

The Dirigo Health program championed by Baldacci, which includes low-income subsidies among its features, has been controversial virtually since its inception in 2003 and has figured prominently in this year’s gubernatorial campaign debate.

Meant to insure the uninsured, it has also been touted by supporters as a way to control health care costs and improve the quality of health care.

A Blue Ribbon Commission on Dirigo Health named by Baldacci convened last month to investigate long-term financing options.

The commission has been directed to submit a report with recommendations to the governor by Dec. 15.

As spelled out at a candidates’ forum last week, Baldacci favors pressing forward with his Dirigo health initiative while Republican Chandler Woodcock promotes private sector competition.

Independent Barbara Merrill would give time for a Blue Ribbon commission to make improvements before abandoning it altogether.