Maine Senate Bill Would Create Insurance Purchasing Pool for Employers, Uninsured Residents

Maine Senate President Richard Bennett (R) has proposed a bill (LD 2146) that would create a state health insurance purchasing pool, expanding the types of health coverage available to residents and public and private employers at a "range of prices," the Portland Press Herald reports. Under the proposed program, called the Maine Consumer Choice Health Plan and modeled after the Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan, a five-member board of directors would negotiate health plan contracts with a number of insurance carriers. Private and public employers and individuals who have not enrolled in other health plans would be eligible for health plans offered under the program. According to Bennett, 1.1 million residents would be eligible to participate in the program. Bennett said that the bill, which is backed by groups such as the Maine Medical Association and the Maine Hospital Association, provides "myriad ... health insurance options for all Mainers, regardless of income, employment status, employer or location." For example, the bill would permit a small business, previously able to only offer employees one type of health plan, to provide a variety of options, including managed care plans, point-of-service plans and basic-service plans, Bennett said. But during a March 11 hearing of the state Legislature's joint Banking and Insurance Committee, Joseph Ditre, director of Maine's Consumers for Affordable Health Care Coalition, said that the purchasing group would "fail to contain costs for participating employers," adding that savings would only come from "reducing benefits and providers and separating older sicker subscribers into their own higher risk pool." Ditre said, "That's completely unacceptable." The committee is expected to discuss the bill again in a March 13 work session (Murphy, Portland Press Herald, 3/12).