AUGUSTA (AP) — Many measures aimed at expanding health care coverage in Maine should await final action in Congress, but policymakers should not stop working on the issue, Maine insurance regulators say.

In a preliminary report, the state Insurance Bureau says Maine’s options to improve access, affordability and security in the health care system will vary depending on what, if any, federal laws are enacted. Separate bills passed by the U.S. House and Senate await final disposition.

“Policymakers should continue trying to stabilize the market, make coverage more secure, more affordable and more available,” Insurance Superintendent Mila Kofman said in an interview Friday. “If we do not get federal reform, policymakers will have an opportunity to do more.”

The report, released last week, stems from a 2009 law that asks the superintendent to review ways to improve the availability and affordability of Maine’s individual health insurance market.

“We’ve done many of the things Congress is trying to do on reforming the private insurance market,” Kofman said.

Citing census data, the report says Maine has an uninsured rate of 9.6 percent, the sixth lowest in the nation and well below the national average of 15.4 percent. A recent public opinion survey by a Portland firm puts the state rate at 11 percent.

The Insurance Bureau’s report cites a study by the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that advocates for improvements in the health care system, showing that Maine had the ninth-highest premiums for employer-sponsored coverage in 2008. Massachusetts was highest, followed by Minnesota, New Hampshire, Indiana, Connecticut, Delaware, Alaska, and Rhode Island.

The report also observes that health insurance premiums have been increasing across the country, a trend underscored by federal Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius last week as she released a report stressing the urgency for health care reform.

Maine’s dominant health carrier, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, was denied an 18.5 percent increase for individual policies last year and is now requesting that state regulators approve a 23 percent rise. Public comment sessions are scheduled for Monday and Wednesday on the Anthem request and for MEGA Life and Health’s request for an increase of 21 percent in its small group policies and 12.5 percent for its individual policies.

Kofman said the report also shows there’s a lot more competition now in the health insurance market than there was five years ago, a change she attributed in large part to the entry of Dirigochoice, the state-subsidized health insurance program.

The insurance superintendent’s report notes that total market share for Anthem slipped from 74 percent to 58 percent between 2004 and 2008. At the same time, market share for at least three other carriers, Aetna Health, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Cigna/Connecticut General, increased.

Anthem’s loss of market share reflects the transfer of DirigoChoice coverage from Anthem to Harvard Pilgrim as of 2008.

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