Maine's Dirigo off to a slow start.

• Author: McKane, Jonathan
• Position: Letter to the editor

Editor:

In your article "Prognosis for the Uninsured," in the May issue, you incorrectly state the numbers of enrollees in Dirigo Health, Maine's answer to high health insurance costs.

That 15,000 people are enrolled in Dirigo and that 43 percent were previously uninsured is simply not true. At last count, only about 7,500 people are enrolled and somewhere between 1,600 and 2,000 were previously uninsured. Also, almost half of the enrollees are simply new Medicaid recipients. Some of us on the Insurance and Financial Services Committee have asked to see the statistics on these enrollees, and although the Dirigo Agency has most of the information, it has been kept hidden. One can only assume that the details don't...