AUGUSTA – Chris Smith has Lyme disease, and Tuesday she was having a bad day.

The Mechanic Falls resident sat in a crowded room at the State House, struggling to stay awake. When her name was called, she had three minutes to tell the Insurance and Financial Services Committee about her struggle with the tick-borne disease, and why committee members should support a bill to help provide education and insurance coverage for sufferers.

Smith clutched the podium, shaking as she told the panel her plight.

“I continue to try to keep going because I don’t want to become crippled,” she said.

The bill is aimed at slowing the disease and addressing the difficulty people have in obtaining a diagnosis, sponsor Sen. Bruce Bryant, D-Dixfield, said. It would require insurance companies to cover services related to the diagnosis and treatment of the disease.

The bill would also require employers who supervise people in high-risk situations to educate their employees. It would require the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention to study the incidence of the disease and report to the Legislature by the beginning of next year.

Tuesday’s hearing will be followed by a committee vote Friday on a proposal to send it to the House and Senate for votes.

There were 237 cases of the disease in Maine in 2005, and the number rises each year, Bryant said.

Lyme disease is a bacterial infection spread by an infected deer tick’s bite to humans and animals. It causes skin rashes, flulike symptoms, joint pain and fatigue, and it affects the nervous, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and immune systems, Dr. Beatrice M. Szantyr of Lincoln said. It can be transmitted through pregnancy.

“I can’t do things I used to do,” Smith said. “Some doctors said that’s because of age. That’s not true.”

Health insurance companies, proponents of the bill said, would only provide up to 30 days of treatment. Those with the disease said they needed more. Much more.

Many said they spend thousands in insurance company money due to misdiagnoses. Many doctors did not want to acknowledge the disease, so instead told them they had multiple sclerosis, lupus or depression. Some said they went out of state for help.

Smith said she started having symptoms five years ago. After going through 13 doctors in three-and-a-half years, she went to a Lyme clinic in Kennebunkport, where she was diagnosed with the disease.

The year she started having symptoms, five members of her family died.

Most doctors wrote her problems off as depression.

She said she has shelled out $10,000 from her own pocket.

Smith will see her doctor today, seeking some antibiotics. She said she does best when she is on medication.

A few people testified against the bill, many disagreeing with the language.

The Maine Merchants Association submitted testimony strongly opposing the measure because of the possible increase in insurance premiums.

“We have been convinced, and remain so, that the two dozen or so mandates enacted in the past have added several percentage points to health care costs,” the testimony read, and “have contributed significantly to the affordability crisis Maine is experiencing.”

Smith, a widow, said her biggest fear is that she’ll fall and no one will be around to help her. Her grown children are very concerned.

She said she has started seeing a male friend, who has helped her get through life with the disease.

“Now I feel like I have something to live for,” she said with a smile.

Dan Noble of Norway told the committee a similar story, saying he even went to New York seeking treatment. He wore a bright green shirt that read “Ticks suck.”

“It’s been something fierce,” he said.