By Bonnie Washuk,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Most who turned out Monday approved of what Gov. John Baldacci’s health office wants to do to make Maine the healthiest state in the nation.

Several who spoke at the Lewiston-Auburn College hearing represented health programs. In general, they praised the plan, and asked that more be done to help Mainers get healthy.

Baldacci’s Office of Health and Finance Policy has proposed a health plan that would:

• Build a public health infrastructure to help Mainers link with local resources to prevent and treat diseases;

• Promote disease prevention by asking patients to sign contracts with their doctors to take steps to become healthier;

• Limit building of new medical buildings, such as a new hospital wing. Only projects Maine needs and can afford will win approval; and

• Improve DirigoChoice next year so that more of Maine’s uninsured are covered.

Angela Westhoff of Healthy Androscoggin liked the idea of building a public health infrastructure. “It’s essential. This is a step in the right direction.”

Westhoff questioned where the money would come from to pay for the system, and how it would be accountable.

Rep. Margaret Craven, D-Lewiston, applauded the proposed plan, but said more needs to be done to help Mainers get active. She asked for support in her proposal of mandating sidewalks for new or improved streets and highways.

David Rappoport of Maine Health Access Foundation applauded the plan, and urged it to integrate more health issues.

Jim Ellsworth of Oakland was the only one not representing government or a health organization who spoke.

There are good things in the plan, he said. But it doesn’t do enough to fix what he called “a broken medical system” and help people like him without health care.

Ellsworth is self-employed, suffers from depression and cannot afford the help he needs.

The plan assumes if everyone works together, “everything will be fine,” Ellsworth said. It won’t, he said. “There will be no consensus on creating a real health care system. Doctors, hospitals, insurance companies and drug companies will not agree to any system that challenges their power and profits,” Ellsworth said. “Being sick makes us really, really poor.”

In response, a Baldacci administration official said DirigoChoice was built for the Jim Ellsworths of Maine.

Fewer than expected uninsured people have signed up for Dirigo, largely because of its cost. Next year Dirigo will be pushed to double the number of uninsured enrolled, said Trish Riley, director of the Governor’s Office of Health Policy and Finance.

Money to pay for that will come from $44 million that wasn’t spent in health care last year because of Dirigo, Riley said. Work will also be done to develop a lower-cost product, she said.

Input from the hearings will be forwarded to Baldacci in December. It will begin to be implemented in January, Riley said.

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