In response to the Aug. 31 editorial, “Question 1 is deeper than beverage taxes,” one point deserves clarification. The 1.8 percent assessment on paid insurance claims is actually a reduction in the amount premium payers are paying toward Dirigo today.

Currently, the program is supported by a savings offset payment – an assessment on paid claims that can be levied only when savings in the system have been independently documented. That assessment, by law, can be as high as 4 percent and over the past 3 years has been just over 2 percent. Perhaps more significantly, the savings offset payment remains contentious, and the process to determine, defend and deliberate savings in the system costs everyone.

The compromise reached with the Legislature this past session not only found alternative funding for Dirigo, but also expanded the Dirigo Health reform to include significant rate relief in the private individual market.

The new taxes on beer, wine and sugared drinks were supported by a bipartisan blue-ribbon commission on Dirigo Health convened in 2006 by Gov. Baldacci.

The broader Dirigo Health reform continues its less well-known efforts to reduce the spiraling growth of health care costs and to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the health care system in order to make health insurance more affordable for all of us.

More information about those efforts are available at www.maine.gov/StateHealthPlan.

Trish Riley, Augusta, Director

Governor’s Office of Health Policy and Finance