LD 1760 proposes a high-risk pool for health insurance coverage in Maine. For those unfamiliar with high-risk pools and the problems one caused in Maine from 1988 to 1994, they are a way to lower premiums for healthy people at the cost of taxpayers and the sick.

LD 1760 would separate the low-risk individuals from those deemed high-risk (the people the health insurance companies don’t want to insure) and charging different standards to the two groups. This will slightly lower the costs to the healthy while anyone with a blemish on his/her medical records will have to pay double for equal to worse coverage as those considered low-risk.

In states with high-risk pools, maternal coverage for the high-risk individuals is rarely included, costs extra, and includes waiting periods up to 10 months. And these people are paying more! It is simply a disastrous policy which takes advantage of the disadvantaged.

The result is that high-risk people are forced to drop their insurance and turn to the emergency room. Taxpayers foot the bill while health insurance companies make more money than ever.

Maine should not be looking to high-risk pools for a cure to our health care troubles. We should be trying to guarantee health care for everyone and lowering costs by kicking out these greedy insurance companies who only care about their bottom line.

We should be implementing universal single-payer health care.

Josh Gagne, Lewiston