I was disappointed to see Cathy Gavin’s letter (Sept. 2) that suggests the Dirigo Health Agency “spun” the facts of our recent study about those who enrolled in the DirigoChoice program. She disapproves of our focus on the number of under-insured in our program and suggests we are hiding from the fact that there are more of those new enrollees than previously uninsured.

The study by the Muskie School of Public Service reports only on the first three months of enrollment. We have always said the program and its discounts should be available to all businesses, not just those previously uninsured. It is not fair to allow one business to benefit from Dirigo while a competitor could not simply because he had previously offered health insurance. Thus, we expected and, indeed, encouraged enrollment from the previously insured. Indeed, those previously uninsured are the toughest to market to and we expected could take longer to sign up.

We do not apologize for serving the under-insured. The majority of under-insured had annual incomes below $18,600 and were paying premiums for coverage that had deductibles in excess of $2,500 or more out-of-pocket for health care. The Muskie study showed that these people had gone without needed care while they had those high deductible plans.

DirigoChoice is about providing affordable, quality coverage, and we will continue to do so.

I urge all parties to help DirigoChoice succeed in making sure Mainers have health coverage they need and can afford.

Robert E. McAfee, M.D., chairman, Dirigo Health Agency board of directors, Portland

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