In a replay of TennCare, Tennessee's expanded Medicaid program, Maine Governor John Baldacci's Dirigo Health program has succeeded in shifting thousands of previously insured individuals onto the state's welfare rolls - and as last week's OpinionJournal noted, the promised savings have turned into a tax increase:
Welcome to the Pine Tree state, where a program that the governor claims has saved the state millions of dollars means that your taxes go ... up. Maine is the home of Democratic Gov. John Baldacci's Dirigo Health, which regulates the state's health-care system and includes a subsidized health-insurance program. (Dirigo is the state's motto, Latin for "I lead.") When the law creating Dirigo Health was signed, proponents said it would reduce cost-shifting and health-system costs and ultimately cover all 130,000 uninsured Mainers within five years, including 31,000 uninsured in year one.
It hasn't worked out that way. Through the first nine months only 1,600 previously uninsured individuals enrolled in Dirigo Health's insurance product, called DirigoChoice. The other 6,000 who enrolled simply traded their private health insurance for taxpayer-subsidized DirigoChoice. The program continues to spend millions subsidizing insurance for those already insured.
21 Feb 2006 @ 8:51am