LEWISTON – After studying Maine’s Dirigo Health program, a group of Bates College students has concluded that the first-in-the-nation health plan will work, said political science student Ryan Conrad.

This summer, when Gov. John Baldacci’s health plan begins, health care in Maine will be more accessible and affordable. More people will have access to preventative care.

In addition, Dirigo will help all consumers understand that different prices are charged by various providers, said the spokesman for Bates’ New World Coalition, a student social justice group.

The group released its analysis Thursday. As part of the analysis, the students looked at the original opposition to Dirigo, which included the Maine Heritage Policy Center and Maine hospitals.

Understanding why the Maine Heritage Policy Center opposed Dirigo is easy, Conrad said. The MHPC is an “anti-government, ultra-conservative” group backed by the national Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. Opposing a program like Dirigo “is what they do.”

The center opened in 2003, the same year state lawmakers were debating Dirigo, Conrad said. MHPC attacked it by spreading “misinformation,” he said. The MHPC’s answer on how to address Maine’s health-care crisis “is do nothing, which is not an option,” Conrad said.

Less easy to understand is why Maine hospitals opposed Dirigo, given that they stand to make money with more people insured, the students concluded.

By 2009, when Dirigo is fully implemented, 110,000 Mainers who didn’t have health insurance will, which means hospitals will get paid for those bills, according to the students’ analysis.

The students concluded hospitals opposed Dirigo in part for its cost-containment measures that will limit hospital expansions and force hospitals to reassess how they spend money. “People don’t want to be told what to do,” Conrad said.

Both groups disagreed Friday with some of the students’ conclusions.

The Maine Heritage Policy Center is not tied to, and does not get money from, the Heritage Foundation, according to Executive Director Bill Becker. Except for a Web site link, “we have no affiliation between the Heritage Foundation, none at all,” he said. “We’re funded by individuals, corporations and foundations in Maine and out, the majority from Maine.”

The center does not oppose Dirigo, but does challenge what the plan was supposed to do versus what it will do, Becker said, adding it’s important to get out the facts. The concept of affordable coverage is good, but the idea of expanding Medicaid “when the state can’t balance the budget is not prudent fiscal management.”

The heritage center’s answer to the health-care problem is creating tax-free savings accounts so people can save for health expenses, Becker said. It also favors creating a high-risk pool to create a new insurance category for the sickest population, and favors eliminating regulation that drives up costs, he said.

The Maine Hospital Association was opposed to “pieces of Dirigo” last year, said lobbyist Mary Mayhew. “We were gravely concerned” about a proposed global hospital budget that capped spending and did not allow enough growth for more patients, given that Maine’s population is rapidly aging, she said.

Hospitals are now optimistic about Dirigo, Mayhew said.

The students are interested in Dirigo because health care is an important issue in an election year, and soon they will be coming off their parents’ insurance plans, Conrad said.

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