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Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Dirigo Health Now! a coalition with a plan
Copyright © 2004 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. | ||||||
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More than 150 businesses and advocacy groups have come together to drum up support for Dirigo Health, Gov. John Baldacci's plan to cover Maine's 138,000 uninsured residents in five years. Dirigo Health Now! unveiled a new Web site, www.- dirigohealthnow.org, Monday and announced plans to conduct training seminars and develop promotional materials for small businesses and self-employed individuals. Calling Dirigo Health the best chance to make health care in Maine affordable and accessible, leaders expressed hope that the public information campaign will persuade Mainers to consider signing up for the program. The alliance, composed largely of groups aligned with the Democratic governor's administration, also wants to counter critics such as the conservative think tank Maine Heritage Policy Center, which publishes a quarterly newsletter called DirigoWatch. "Our interest is in helping people have a positive understanding of what Dirigo is," said Mike Saxl, the former House speaker who was hired to run the Dirigo Health Now! campaign. Dirigo Health, a nationally recognized program that prices plans on ability to pay, was created a year ago by the governor's health reform law of the same name. Since then, proponents such as Consumers for Affordable Health Care, Maine Equal Justice and the Maine Peoples Alliance have been formulating a strategy to generate public support for the law, which also addresses cost-containment and quality improvement in health care. Dirigo Health Now! is the result. As much as $75,000 in grants for the coalition's activities has been secured by Consumers for Affordable Health Care, its fiscal agent. The campaign's launch comes after state officials announced Friday that Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Maine was the only company to bid on providing coverage for Dirigo Health. The Baldacci administration said it wants to start the program this summer, but Anthem has said it will need six months to prepare. Despite uncertainty around the program's start, the leaders of Dirigo Health Now! said this still is a good time to roll out the campaign. "With the prospect of enrollment beginning at the end of summer, we have a very short time to educate people and correct the inaccuracies about this program," said Joe Ditre, executive director of Consumers for Affordable Health Care and the coalition's treasurer. But the Maine Heritage Policy Center questioned why Dirigo Health Now! was formed at all. Bill Becker, executive director of the think tank, pointed out that the Baldacci administration received $887,000 last month from the Maine Health Access Foundation, partly to fund the marketing of Dirigo Health. Becker also said the new coalition has a weak cause. Dirigo Health, he said, is a fiscally irresponsible initiative at a time of budget deficits, and of questionable benefit to employers that are looking to save money. "If it were such a strong product," Becker said, "we wouldn't need a coalition to come together to spread the word about Dirigo Health." Doug Green, owner of furniture maker Green Design and a member of the alliance, acknowledged that the proposed cost of Dirigo Health is comparable to what he pays now for his 14 employees. Dirigo plans to offer a $1,250-deductible plan to a single employee for $282 a month or $846 for an employee with a spouse and children; employers are asked to pay at least 60 percent of costs for the employee only. "But," Green said at a press conference in his Portland store Monday, "I'm hopeful that the (numbers) will be more competitive and be able to start driving down the cost of other providers as well." Other coalition members range from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland to the National Alliance of Mental Illness in Maine and AARP in Maine. Uninsured individuals have also signed on. Two philanthropies are bankrolling the campaign. A $25,000 grant came from the Jesse B. Cox Charitable Trust in Boston, Ditre said. The New York-based Nathan Cummings Foundation has promised as much as $50,000. Grass-roots fund raising is next, said Saxl who runs Maine Street Solutions, a public affairs and consulting service of the Verrill & Dana law firm in Portland. Staff Writer Josie Huang can be contacted at 791-6364 or at:
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