Maine’s “Public Option” Still in the Red
posted at 8:49 am on December 11, 2009 by Slublog
Lawmakers also received sobering news from administrators of the state’s Dirigo health insurance program.Earlier this year, lawmakers extended Dirigo Health a $25 million loan to help cover costs while the program worked toward self-sufficiency. Karynlee Harrington, executive director at Dirigo Health, told the committee Thursday that the program does not expect to be able to pay back the full $25 million by June 30, as required.
“We are making progress. We have a positive cash balance,” Harrington said. While the program expects to be self-sufficient sometime in fiscal year 2011, which begins July 1, it will not likely happen before then, she said.
2011? Just over a year? Sounds great, until you consider that the program was supposed to be paying for itself a long time ago. Read this report from the Maine Heritage Policy Center (pdf) for a thorough examination of just how badly Maine’s attempt at a health care public option has failed. Some highlights:
–Dirigo Health has cost taxpayers $155 million over five years in subsidies and administrative costs alone.
–Today, DirigoChoice covers just 3,400 uninsured (less than 3 percent of Maine’s uninsured population).
–Incredibly, the DirigoChoice premiums for sole proprietors and individuals have skyrocketed 74% in 4 years. (4 times faster than the Maine State Employees health plan (17%) and 7 times faster than inflation (10%)).
The program that was supposed to pay for itself through cost savings in healthcare (sound familiar?) still depends almost entirely on taxpayer dollars for its continued existence. At present, Maine taxpayers pay 61.9% of the program’s total costs, an increase from previous years.
It’s an expensive failure and now Democrats want to take it nationwide. Like Ed said back in August, call your Congressional representatives and tell them to Remember the Maine.
Blowback
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csdeven on December 11, 2009 at 8:56 AM
Wow. Just take that 155 million and divide it by 3400 and it ends up being roughly 45,500 per person. Even dividing that over the 6 years the program has been running and it’s almost 7600 per person. Is it just me, or would a voucher program have been much cheaper? That’s just ridiculous. California, who normally screws most things up, actually has a somewhat functional system. Here there is a high risk pool for those with preexisting conditions who have been denied insurance. They can get insurance from three separate private insurance companies that offer plans. They’re not cheap, but they’re not prohibitively expensive either. As a libertarian I’m not even a fan of this system, but it seems preferable to the massive one size fits all solutions that make things worse for everybody in order to address issues that only impact a select few. The real solution for everyone is competition across state lines and health savings accounts. Market forces and a reduction of bureaucratic regulations is the only solution that will actually drive down costs for everyone without sacrificing the quality of care. Who knows, a little innovation might even be sparked as a result.
Stickeehands on December 11, 2009 at 9:08 AM
How much service did they have to cut to reach that positive cash balance? At least everyone is covered, right?
Kissmygrits on December 11, 2009 at 9:37 AM
10K people are covered by DirigoHealth and I can’t sign up because of sign-up freeze though I work for a small business as a contractor. Basically the only option I have available is a $5000 a year deductible 350-400$ a month plan from Anthem. Assurant Health and those other places? hah, we’re on the list of states that they can’t sell to.
If these people let me buy across state lines in NH, I could’ve already bought a plan for similar prices as Dirigochoice. However, they couldn’t have opened up a new department and add more government jobs.
Seeing as the state is rather business hostile, the ‘best employer’ is the state.
drdroo on December 11, 2009 at 11:08 AM
404 still in effect here
maverick muse on December 11, 2009 at 11:37 AM
“Remember the Maine”
Remember the Massachusetts
Remember the Tennessee
Remember Stalin
Irvine CA Councilman and Assembly candidate Steven Choi makes a legitimate point by characterizing Pelosi with Stalin.
Jewish critic including rabbi and columnist Brad Hirschfield, sensitive to their own extreme plight in history, rather than claiming a monopoly on the savagery that Marxism begat upon 20th Century populations, should rather be the loudest town criers warning the ENTIRE public of the horrors that Pelosi, Reid and Obama, Inc. hold in store for every American
citizenserf or peon. This administration and Congress IS attempting to repeat the global experience that occurred with Stalin, Hitler, Mao and every other Marxist dictator, only WORSE this time coming.maverick muse on December 11, 2009 at 11:39 AM
/Given that HotAir has not opened a Greenroom 404 fix-it list to reference, the slap down affect is none too subtle.
maverick muse on December 11, 2009 at 11:42 AM
Bear in mind that this is just the amount of tax money spent to cover administrative costs and provide subsidies. I suspect that the actual bill is higher. Also, the program hasn’t always had 3,400 people covered, at its peak it covered 15,000 people. What’s notable is that as the amount of people covered has dropped (to 1/5 of the highest total), premiums have continued to rise at an alarming pace.
So the cost per-person is probably much higher now than it was before, they’re probably getting lower quality care, they’re planning to dump Medicare-eligible participants… and they still don’t expect the program to become self-sustaining until 2011. Then again, does anyone expect this mess to be anything but a fiscal black hole in 2011?
Yeah, me either.
Tonus on December 11, 2009 at 1:41 PM
With Maine and Mass healthcare fiascos staring you in the face how can ANY East Coast Senators or Reps vote for Obamacare no matter what they throw at them in payoffs? I don’t get it.
Madness.
journeyintothewhirlwind on December 11, 2009 at 8:23 PM