Dirigo helps Maine families deal with high health care costs.

When I was speaker of the House in 2003, I was part of some amazing legislation. I’m really proud of all the work we accomplished in the Legislature, but I feel Dirigo Health was our crowning achievement. We didn’t take on health care for any political reason; we fought for affordable health care because we felt we had the responsibility to help working Mainers with the burden of high health care costs. Dirigo is a compromise reached between people on both sides of the aisle. It’s a comprehensive approach to health care, with the ultimate goal of providing affordable health care to all Mainers.

Its creation

Let’s cut through the current politics surrounding Dirigo and look back to its creation.

Thanks to Gov. Baldacci’s leadership, Democrats and Republicans came together to tackle health care reform. Then-Senate President Bev Daggett and I enacted a special bipartisan committee to deal with health care. This bipartisan committee overwhelmingly supported Dirigo. In fact, when Dirigo came to the floor of the House, it passed with a two-thirds majority. At that time, both sides understood that something had to be done to help Mainers with the high cost of health care. Admittedly, we disagreed on the direction we needed to go to fix the problem, but we committed ourselves to aggressively studying our options. From health savings accounts (HSA) to high-risk pools, we looked at every option to discover the best way to help Maine families.

Health savings accounts

We spent a lot of time talking about health savings accounts. Let’s really take a look at HSAs. These accounts represents a strategy that would only provide “underinsured” status for the same people whom Dirigo now provides comprehensive insurance to. A typical Maine working family, living paycheck to paycheck, struggling to get by, would only suffer more under this plan. Most Mainers could never afford to put $50,000 into a health savings account. We determined then, and I still contend, that HSAs are just a tax write off for the very wealthy and do nothing for hardworking Mainers.

High-risk pools

Let’s look at high-risk pools. This is how the proposal would affect you, if you are “risky.” If your insurance company considers you a “risky” client, one of two things would happen: (1) you would be denied health insurance when you apply for it; or, (2) your premiums would skyrocket because the insurance company could set your premium based on how “risky” they think you are to insure. What does “risky” mean? You would be a “risky” client if you have had cancer, have diabetes or chronic asthma, suffer from a mental illness, had a debilitating accident or any other costly medical condition. In other words, those who most need health care would fall through the cracks.

Created in 2002, New Hampshire’s high-risk pool has only 500 people enrolled. Premiums for individuals range from 125 percent to 140 percent of the standard market rate and can be as high as $1,400 per month depending on the plan, your age and tobacco use. Deductibles are up to $5,000 and total annual out-of-pocket costs can be as much as $10,000 for out-of-network services. This is not affordable health care. Furthermore, coverage in the high-risk pool is not comprehensive. If you want coverage for maternity care, the maternity rider would cost you an additional $500 to $1,000 on top of the monthly premium.

The best solution

Republicans and Democrats agreed that high-risk pools and health savings accounts don’t work. We agreed that Dirigo was the best solution, which had the most positive effect on people’s lives. We set lofty goals for Dirigo and two years on the results speak for themselves.

Thanks to Dirigo Health, despite the national trends, the health care situation has gotten better in Maine. The percentage of Mainers without health insurance fell by more than 5 percent in the last year, bucking the national trend, which saw the number rise. Fewer Mainers are going without health care because Dirigo works. Mainers are getting healthier, too. According to the United Health Foundation, Maine is now the eighthhealthiest state in the nation, up from 10th just a few years ago.

Now, because it is an election year, Republicans have turned against Dirigo, playing politics with people’s health care.

In the Legislature, Democrats and Republicans found that health savings accounts and high-risk pools don’t work. We created Dirigo together. Dirigo is a compromise between Republicans, Democrats, the insurance industry and health care providers. Dirigo is a real way to provide affordable health care to all Mainers. It fits with our Maine values, and it is a program I am proud of.

Dirigo helps Maine families deal with skyrocketing health care costs. Maine Republicans have no alternatives to Dirigo and do not share the Democrat’s ultimate goal of providing affordable health care to all Mainers. Let Dirigo work, it’s working for all of us.

Pat Colwell is the former speaker of the Maine House of Representatives and the chairman of the state Democratic Party.