AUGUSTA (AP) – Gov. John Baldacci’s nominee for the open post of Maine insurance superintendent won Senate confirmation Thursday in a party-line vote.

Following an 8-5 vote by the Insurance and Financial Services Committee on Tuesday, the nomination of Mila Kofman was approved in the Senate on a tally of 18-17. It would have taken a two-thirds majority in the Senate to reverse the committee’s majority recommendation.

Democrats control both houses of the Legislature and so have majorities on most legislative committees. The Democratic majority in the Senate, however, is only 18-17.

Questioning in committee and debate over the nomination on the Senate floor frequently focused on the state’s financially strapped Dirigo Health program. The program’s aim of expanding access to health care for people without insurance continues to put supportive Democrats against critical Republicans.

Concluding the Senate debate Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Elizabeth Mitchell, D-Vassalboro, called on members to save their comments on Dirigo Health for debate on the program itself and to focus for the time being on the merits of the Kofman nomination and in particular her qualifications.

As for Dirigo Health, Mitchell said, “it’s our problem, not the regulator’s problem.”

Kofman, an associate research professor at Georgetown’s Health Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., worked at the U.S. Department of Labor on state and federal health care initiatives from 1997 to 2001.

The governor’s office said Kofman has served as a consumer representative at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners since 2002 and was appointed co-editor of the Journal of Insurance Regulation in 2005.

Sen. Lois Snowe-Mello, R-Poland, said part of the Republican concern over the nomination had to do with “neutrality” concerning Dirigo Health.

Dirigo was created in 2003 as a step toward universal health care, but has drawn criticism for falling below enrollment expectations.

A key source of funds for the program’s subsidies, assessments to insurers based on savings created by Dirigo, has also been challenged by insurers.

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