Health Care: How Soon Before It's Unaffordable to Everyone?

Governor Baldacci has announced a schedule of meetings around the state to discuss Maine's health care system and how best to improve it for all of its residents. He's invited public input, hoping for new, innovative ideas to make Maine people among the nation's healthiest by encouraging both prevention and early detection of potential illnesses and diseases.

We hope that one key theme is central to all the discussions: Don't expand health care to more and more families year after year at the expense of those currently striving to pay their own health care premiums. The current savings offset system, which has allowed Anthem to pass along increases to its thousands of health insurance customers in order to help fund Dirigo is, in our opinion, wrong, wrong, wrong.

It's wonderful that the state feels Dirigo is saving money by covering a lot of low income families, and who could argue that it's important for everyone to have health care coverage? However, somewhere along the way, the powers-that-be have failed to take into consideration what these routine increases do to Maine people struggling to pay their own health care premiums. In fact, it's so frustrating to see the costs go up year after year after year, that we can fully understand why some of those who are borderline eligible for the state's low-cost insurance give up the fight with the attitude that if you can't beat them, join them; they give up their insurance and apply for Dirigo.

Unfortunately, the goal shouldn't be to have widespread state-funded health care. We should qualify that statement, perhaps, by saying we don't think so. There are those who feel the state, federal government, or someone should provide health insurance to everyone, rather than expect folks to pay their own. Certainly there are thousands right here in our own state and millions nationwide who can't afford health insurance, and, truthfully, at today's exorbitant prices, even those who do have coverage can't really afford it, either.

Be that as it may, we hope the public forums on improving Maine's health care include reminders that unless we stop forcing those with health care insurance to pay for those who don't, we'll all be on some sort of health care insurance subsidy, and soon!