The 10th Amendment to the United States Constitution is an important concluding statement of the Bill of Rights. The first nine amendments specify key rights of the people, and limit the authority of the central government. The 10th Amendment is an open-ended limit on federal authority:

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

With the debate on health care reform, cap and trade energy taxes, and bailouts/TARP/stimulus spending, the 10th Amendment has become more relevant today in a new era of expanding federal spending and authority.

Neither of the two health care bills recently passed in the House and Senate are compliant with the 10th Amendment. In both versions, the federal government would force every citizen in the country to have health insurance provided by their employer, or would require that individuals purchase a federally approved health plan from a private insurance company.

This health plan purchase is not a suggestion or a recommendation by Washington — it is a mandate. It would require individuals to spend thousands of their own dollars with a private insurance company or be subject to heavy fines, fees, extra taxes or other penalties.

While not specifically defined as a new “tax,” when the federal government threatens the citizens with criminal penalties unless they spend thousands of dollars on a health plan that they may or may not want based on their personal circumstances, the impact on household budgets is no different from a significant federal tax increase.

This type of top-down, Washington-based solution is not good for the country and is contradictory to the constitutional rights of the states as defined in the 10th Amendment. It will also be a tremendous burden on the states to implement.

Ben Franklin, commenting on the framers’ design of our federalist system, said that the states would be the “incubators” of democracy. The genius in this idea is in designing a system that allows each state to compete against each other for ideas and solutions and determining what works and is appropriate for each unique state. The competition makes the country stronger.

Dirigo Health is a great example of this competition in action. Maine came up with a “solution” to reduce the number of uninsured people and lower health care costs. The plan was even called “Dirigo” (“I Lead” in Latin) because the Maine government believed other states would follow our lead after the plan succeeded.

Unfortunately, the Dirigo Health experiment never covered more than 4 percent of the uninsured, and has required tens of millions of dollars in extra taxes. After five years, Dirigo is an inarguable failure. But to be fair, it was an experiment, implemented in the way that our Constitution’s framers had hoped for.

Maine needs to repeal the failed and costly Dirigo Health experiment, and immediately look to other states’ successful reforms that have actually improved access to health insurance and controlled costs. We must reduce counter-productive regulations and implement free market ideas that have worked well in other states to create a health care system for Maine people that is more efficient and less costly.

Dirigo’s failure is actually a successful outcome that underscores the wisdom of our Constitution’s framers. Other states with similar health care problems have been able to learn from Maine’s experience and will not duplicate our failed Dirigo Health experiment. Fortunately for the other 49 states, only Maine has had to go through Dirigo’s cost and expense while the rest of the states got the benefit of learning from our experience and not replicating our proposal. The country is stronger as a result.

But in Washington, they have missed this lesson. While other states have avoided a repeat of the Dirigo Health experiment, the current health care debate in Congress has failed to connect those same dots. Each of the current federal health care bills includes some variation of Maine’s experiment with a public option. We know that the same promises about health care are being made in Washington today that were made in Maine in 2003. Congress is also mandating a top-down approach that infringes on the respective state’s constitutional rights to experiment and determine what is best for each state’s own citizens.

The 10th Amendment matters. States competing to solve problems is good for the country. The federal government needs to stop forcing expensive solutions from Washington, and get back to letting the states compete for the best ideas.

Matt Jacobson, a Republican candidate for governor, is the president and chief executive officer of Maine & Company, a company dedicated to business attraction and job creation in Maine.