Gov. Baldacci recently announced his next step for Dirigo: HillaryCare.

He wants his very own state-owned insurance company. And he has the liberal Legislature to make it happen.

Hillary Clinton couldn’t push this kind of program through for the country, but Baldacci is imposing it on the people of Maine one step at a time.

Baldacci’s HillaryCare is nothing but an expanded welfare program with lipstick on it. Taxpayers will continue to pay medical expenses for those unable or unwilling to pay their medical expenses. Instead of a direct payment of medical costs for the uninsured, taxpayers will pay their insurance premiums to a new state bureaucracy that will then pay these medical expenses with their tax money.

Baldacci says his program will reduce the number of “uninsured.” Huh? What’s the difference if the state uses tax money to pay insurance premiums or directly pay for medical expenses?

Many of those signing up for HillaryCare were already insured through their employers, but found that with Dirigo the state will pay much of the premium if they earn less than $54,000. At the lower end of the pay scale, the state may pay the whole cost for HillaryCare.

Employers in the state who do provide medical insurance might have to pay the Dirigo tax to the tune of $43.7 million. Employers who don’t provide insurance won’t pay anything. Does that seem fair?

If the governor’s HillaryCare program doesn’t scare you, it should.

David Cutter, Auburn