Utilizing a high-risk pool would help make health insurance affordable.

Health insurance premiums in Maine are out of control. This is a message I heard at countless doors as I campaigned up and down the streets of my district last year. The issue ranked right at the top of the list of concerns along with high taxes and the need for better jobs.

One of the reasons insurance is so expensive in Maine is a requirement known as guaranteed issue. Because of this mandate, insurance companies have to offer everyone a policy regardless of their health status. Further, insurance companies are prevented from assessing significantly higher premiums for those who are more likely to need care because of their health or age.

Guaranteed issue has driven all but three health insurers out of Maine. Those companies that remain face little competition and are forced to pass along the cost of covering high-risk individuals to all consumers and businesses by way of higher premiums.

Those familiar with auto insurance know that it is significantly different than health insurance in the sense that drivers that represent high risks can be charged substantially higher premiums. Consequently, the risk of covering poor or inexperienced drivers is not passed along to all consumers. While some pay more, most of us have access to affordable auto insurance.

Most would agree, however, that simply charging older or sicker people far more for their health insurance is hardly a compassionate solution. Unlike driving a car, access to health care is something no one should have to go without.

Another key difference between auto and health insurance is that everyone in Maine who drives a car is required to have auto insurance. The fact that safe, accident-free drivers participate spreads out the risk and helps keep costs down for those who have been in a fender bender or two.

In the health insurance market, people are not required to carry coverage. As premiums climb higher, healthy people choose to forgo coverage, putting more of the burden on those who, for health reasons, cannot go without it.

The key to making health insurance affordable again is to repeal guaranteed issue in Maine and follow the lead of the 31 states that have established high-risk insurance pools as a means of providing coverage for those who cannot get traditional coverage. Premiums for people covered in these pools, albeit higher than the traditional market, are capped at rates that cannot exceed certain percentages. Tax subsidies are also provided to help maintain affordability for those in the pool.

States like New Hampshire and Kentucky have turned to high-risk pools and seen their premiums fall by as much as 40 percent once the mandate to offer insurance for all is removed. And as premiums decrease, enrollment among the young and healthy segment of the market increases, spreading the risks and costs of providing health care more broadly.

Recognizing the impact that high-risk pools are having elsewhere, I offered legislation to establish a high-risk pool in Maine. I was not alone and eventually was added as a mandatory co-sponsor to legislation authored by Sen. Lloyd LaFountain, a Democrat from Biddeford.

During the debate on the governor’s Dirigo Health Care Initiative, I pressed for the inclusion of a high-risk pool in the package. I, among others, argued that we should be focusing on tried-and-tested solutions that are working in other states to lower the cost of insurance.

Unfortunately, the governor preferred a big government solution that forges new ground, adds to the bureaucracy and is paid for with a new health care tax. No one knows for sure if the governor’s solution is going to work, but we can be certain that it is going to cost us a lot in time and money to find out.

In light of the concerns I heard from voters about the cost of health insurance, I simply could not support a big government approach that I believe to be flawed. It remains my hope that we will turn to solutions that we know are working in other states, and, as a member of the Insurance and Financial Services Committee, I will continue to work toward that end.

Rep. Lois Snowe-Mello of Poland is a Republican serving her fourth term in the Legislature. She is a member of the Insurance and Financial Services Committee and the Criminal Justice Committee.