Give Gov. John Baldacci credit – his nominee for insurance superintendent, Mila Kofman, is a qualified, experienced professional, with extensive background in studying and evaluating state health insurance initiatives.

And she likely has fresher ideas about improving DirigoChoice, the governor’s oft-maligned state insurance program, than anybody in Maine.

In partisan comments in the Senate, Republicans criticized Kofman as a likely supporter of Dirigo’s controversial funding formula: the savings offset payment. The unpopular system charges private insurers – and therefore the privately insured – to subsidize Dirigo’s benefits.

Yet the only funding formula Dirigo has is the SOP. A governor’s task force in 2006 that investigated new funding sources emerged with even less palatable alternatives: higher levies on tobacco and snack foods.

Kofman’s leanings, admittedly, are toward government-based solutions for health insurance problems. This would be more unsettling if Maine lacked a government solution for health insurance that is posing real problems.

It does, so it isn’t.

The appointment of Kofman, also, should position Maine well for whatever health insurance changes are coming from Washington. Depending on the identity and ideology of the next White House occupant, the United States’ health insurance landscape could be altered greatly, perhaps universally.

We would be quite content, though, if Kofman redlined the words “death” and “spiral” from her office copy of Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary. Together, this two-word phrase was her predecessor’s regular lament to describe Maine’s health insurance landscape, and conjured images of inevitable disaster.

The situation still isn’t pretty, but doomsaying phrases only exacerbate the public concern and frustration with legislative inaction. An optimistic outlook – perhaps fueled by a controversial insurance superintendent with much to prove – could help unlock needed progress.

So could Gov. Baldacci. During his State of the State address, he spoke of support for market-based reforms for Maine’s health insurance regulations, and introduced the new insurance carrier of DirigoChoice, Harvard Pilgrim.

Baldacci’s support for market reforms are overdue. Maine’s health insurance problems, we’ve said, needs both government and market solutions – putting too much faith in either won’t create the results most needed: Accessible, comprehensive and affordable health insurance for every Mainer.

If Kofman can deliver this, there will be statues of her in every city and town – but we don’t think for one second she’s can work miracles. We’ll settle for putting Dirigo on self-supporting financial footing.

That will be miraculous enough.