Maine Governor Launches Council to Examine State Health Care Costs

Concerned that escalating health costs could lead employers to drop or reduce employee insurance coverage, Maine Gov. Angus King (I) on Sept. 17 announced the creation of a 14-member council to study the issue in an effort to ultimately "rein in" expenditures, the AP/Portland Press Herald reports. The Maine Health Care Performance Council grew out of a recommendation by the state's Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care, which last year reported that Maine's total annual health care costs were $4.7 billion and increasing "faster than the rate of inflation." The report predicted that costs could "nearly double to $9 billion" by 2010. The new council will gather data on health costs to give state lawmakers a "better idea of what is driving the increases." The AP/Press Herald reports that the council, modeled after the Maine Economic Growth Council, will also compare the situation in Maine with that in other states and "measure the performance of Maine's health care delivery system over time." The council is partially funded through a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and consists of employers, legislators and former legislators, a "women's advocate," and two members of the state Cabinet. King noted that the council does not include insurance industry representatives because "they would have a vested interest" in the council's findings (AP/Portland Press Herald, 9/18).