Gov. John Baldacci should admit his prized Dirigo Health program is in serious trouble and agree to work in a bipartisan way to refashion the program while there is still time.

No one questions the honorable intent of providing health insurance to the working poor, but three years after its inception, many people question whether Dirigo has done that or will ever do that.

There is no dishonor in trying something new and coming up short. Better to try and fail than to do nothing. But if Baldacci continues his stubborn streak over Dirigo, he could well lose the entire program. His majority Democrats don’t have much of a majority these days and even independent supporters of Dirigo are beginning to withdraw their support.

Just last week, independent state Rep. Richard Woodbury of Yarmouth, an economist with Harvard credentials, said he could no longer support the program. “What I thought it was going to be was a self-sustaining program once you got over the initial start-up period,” the House chairman of the Taxation Committee said. “It’s not at all self-sustaining and requires massive subsidies (to provide coverage) for a relatively small number of people.”

Until now, Baldacci has claimed that the debate over Dirigo is politically driven by Republicans in a political year. That line can always be sold to some folks, even when it’s not true. And it’s not true.

Neither is it fair.

Many Republicans never supported Dirigo, so they are not being two-faced now in saying it’s time to revamp the program or scrap it altogether. Many of the GOP lawmakers who did vote in favor of the program now feel cheated by the Baldacci administration, which they say has not delivered the program it promised.

There’s nothing political about withdrawing your support for something when you think you’ve been duped.

Even some Democrats who were strong supporters of the idea are now backing off, hoping the governor will give them some political cover in an election year by getting serious about modifying the program before it’s too late.

So far, Baldacci has given only lip service to the notion that he would sit down and rethink Dirigo and be willing to make changes.

Governors, like presidents, want legacies, and Baldacci wants Dirigo Health to be his. That was obvious when he announced it in 2003 as a first-in-the-nation program to insure the uninsured, increase the quality of health care and reduce costs. But Baldacci’s desire for Dirigo to be his legacy will make it hard for him to admit the program is broken and commit himself to fixing it.

There is still time. But unless he gets serious about revamping Dirigo, and fast, the governor faces the real possibility that the Legislature will do it over his objections – and his veto.

Not much of a legacy in that.