I am giving my support to the Dirigo health plan because if offers Maine citizens a workable solution to their need for health insurance.

According to the governor’s Office of Health Policy, between 2002 and 2003, 290,000 people under 65 – or 26.9 percent of Maine’s population – were uninsured. Eighty-four percent of uninsured families have at least one person working and 75 percent have at least one person working full time. In 2000, 60 percent of these folks went without medically necessary care because of the cost. This is punishing the working poor and should not be tolerated in a humane society.

The only option without Dirigo is a high deductible and, since most never reach their $5,000 deductible, they go without the care they need and suffer effects, which potentially snowball into hardship, despair and the disruption of family life, the cornerstone of a stable and decent society.

As it has so many times before, Maine is setting the pace for the rest of the nation in establishing affordable health insurance for all. Dirigo needs and deserves our support.

Bruce T. Mitchell, Wilton

Copy the Story Link