Maine adopts low-cost health care plan.

• Position: On First Reading - Brief Article

Sometimes it's hard to get much done in a week. Not so in Augusta, Maine, this past spring. In eight days in June, a new health plan passed through committee with unanimous support, passed both chambers of the Legislature by a greater than two-thirds margin and was signed into law.

Dirigo (say deer-a-go) Health, a first-of-its-kind, voluntary program, offers low-cost health plans through private insurance to individuals, small businesses and the self-employed. It also includes subsidies for families of four who make less than $55,000 a year, the moderate-income group that makes up the bulk of Maine's uninsured population.

MaineCare (the state's Medicaid program) will expand to cover individuals and parents with children already enrolled in the Dirigo program if a waiver is approved by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The state hopes to cover more than 30,000 people the first year, with an ultimate goal of making health insurance affordable for all Maine citizens by 2009.

Dirigo Health, a $642 million program, will be funded by additional federal Medicaid dollars, employer contributions, subsidized and unsubsidized payments from participants, and a fee on insurance carriers. The hope is that money will he saved through reductions in bad debt and uncompensated care.

The plan places a one-year voluntary cap on insurer, hospital and provider rates, and limits...