Maine's very own Wall Street money scheme
By Wally EdgeI am not good at math, but how do you go from 15,000 enrollees to 11,500 enrollees and save twice as much money?
It's actually even more confusing than that. The staff at Dirigo Health originally pegged the amount "saved" as $190 million. The Dirigo board trimmed that number to $149.6 million. Now, it looks as though the Superintendent of Insurance, Mila Koffman has dramatically that number, lowering it to 48.7 million.
It is worth explaining, one more time, for those unfamiliar with the Dirigo funding scheme. The savings is defined as money that the Dirigo Health Program saved the health care system by covering more folks through Dirigo Choice or through "innovative cost savings regulations" --things like voluntary prices cap.
So, last year with 4000 more enrollees in Dirigo - they only "saved" roughly 32 million, now with fewer enrollees this year, the program is expect to 50% more at 48.7 million.
Who devised this funding scheme....Lehman Brothers?
What does the "savings" mean for the average Mainer? Well, if you are an individual paying for insurance, it will amount to around a $100 dollar annual surcharge/tax/premium/assessment on your health care. For a family plan, that number jumps to $300 dollars annually. So, the way this works, the more that State saves, the more you pay.
Hank Paulson has nothing on Trish Riley.
This fall voters will have a chance to weigh in on Dirigo funding. If you want to pay $48.7 million in taxes on your health care premiums, vote YES on the People's Veto. If you want to pay $70 million in new taxes on soda and health care you should vote NO on the People's Veto.
No matter what -- Mainer's pay more in taxes.
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If you're an individual paying for insurance you should be looking into Dirigo. That is the whole point. With Dirigo you are paying a group rate but even so the prices are prohibitive, almost $700.00/month for a single person, 80/20, with a moderately high deductable (over $1000)and max out of pocket. They have a set of sliding scales based on income that seems very fair and allows people like myself to be self employed in my career area and not tied to a big corporation accepting mediocre pay for relentless drudgery just in order to be insured.
Most insured people in Maine are part of a group plan. In larger companies where the fees are negotiated the top people carry much better coverage than the plans available at the bottom and guess what? It's the people at the bottom who are not only subject to someone else's negotiating skills and honesty, they are paying for the executive's plans in their own weekly contributions.
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