Senator Weston announces opposition to Governor’s Insurance Pick

Senator Carol Weston (R-Waldo) spoke at the State Chamber meeting at Sunday River this past week. According to one of the attendees, Senator Weston delivered her Republican message and then specifically addressed the Governor’s pick for Superintendent of Insurance, Mila Kofman. In short, the Senator from Waldo County has looked in to her background and will not be supporting Ms. Kofman, and in fact, plans to testify against her.

Senator Weston came to the event armed with information regarding the Governor’s nominee as she spoke to the attendees at the Sunday River event. A few of the highlights of the material provided by Senator Weston regarding Ms. Kofman’s positions on health care are as follows:

• She has no experience with auto insurance, property and casualty insurance, homeowners insurance and annuities, all of which come under the purview of the Bureau of Insurance.
• She is supportive of employer mandates.
• She is opposed d to Health Savings Accounts and other health insurance innovations.
• She opposes Association Health Plans.\
• She is against large businesses self-insuring and federal ERISA protections for large companies
• She is a proponent of single payer, federal health programs. “I believe it would be optimal for us to address the health care crisis in this nation in its entirety and for the federal government to ensure that all Americans have the same basic rights and protections related to health care no matter where one lives or works. - (May 2007 testimony to Congress (http://edworkforce.house.gov/testimony/052207MilaKofmanTestimony.pdf)

Of course, the most alarming thing to me was the fact that she was a health policy advisor to presidential candidate Wesley Clark in 2004.

Few would argue that most of the Governor's appointments have been thoughtful and well received. The choice of Ms. Kofman for Superintendent of Insurance is ridiculous. It is nothing more than the continued politicization of health care in Maine. The only thing more ridiculous is the cowardice of the hospitals and the business community to allow a nominee like this to move forward.