September 21, 2004

Maine lawmaker talks health care with state panel

By Phil Kabler
Staff writer

One of the authors of an innovative universal health insurance plan in Maine met with his West Virginia counterparts Monday to discuss ways states can help thousands of working uninsured find health coverage.

“I’m not here to tell you what to do. I’m hear to listen as much as talk,” Maine Rep. Chris O’Neil told the Legislative Oversight Commission on Health and Human Resources Accountability.

O’Neil helped write Maine’s Dirigo Health Reform Act of 2003. A key portion of the law — named for the state’s motto, Latin for “I lead” — will be a low-premium health insurance plan available to small businesses and the self-employed, starting Jan. 1.

O’Neil said soaring health-care costs pose a looming crisis for all states.

“I frankly believe if we, as states, sit around and wait for Washington to solve our problems, particularly on health care, we’ll have a long wait,” he said.

A key component of the Maine plan is a sliding discount on employee premiums, ranging from 20 percent to 80 percent, based on income.

Individuals and families with incomes up to 300 percent of federal poverty level — up to $27,930 for single coverage, and up to $56,550 for a family of four — will be eligible for the discounts.

The goal of the coverage, which is funded with $53 million of “seed money” from the state, is to reduce the amount that Maine health-care providers write off as bad debt and charity care from $250 million this year to $180 million in 2005, he said.

Although the sign-up period doesn’t open until Oct. 1, O’Neil conceded there’s been “a healthy level of skepticism” from the business community over the program.

“If business doesn’t buy into it, fold the tent,” the Maine Democrat said of the program.

West Virginia is preparing a pilot health insurance program that will offer coverage to small businesses, with premiums and benefits equivalent to those provided to state employees through the Public Employees Insurance Agency.

O’Neil told committee members studying the Dirigo program, “I say, don’t replicate it — do it better.”

Also during legislative interim committee meetings Monday:

Legislative auditors said Lisa Mahon is under investigation for questionable financial practices while she was general manger, including allegedly failing to submit state purchase card receipts, deleting or reposting of personal charges within the Cedar Lakes billing system, as well as for providing free lodging at the center to family members and friends.

Mahon resigned as general manager last Sept. 25, shortly after the state Department of Education launched an investigation into questionable financial practices at Cedar Lakes.

The legislative audit also found that Mahon had authorized payment of salaries to full- and part-time employees from Feb. 15-20, 2003, even though a major ice storm prevented those employees from reporting to work during that period.

The estimated cost of paying the employees who were unable to work that week was $18,000, according to the audit.

The academy is operated by the West Virginia University Institute of Technology, but Corrections officials say the academy’s current location, in Tech’s dilapidated Maclin Hall, is no longer suitable.

Corrections Commissioner Jim Rubenstein told the committee that Montgomery is an ideal location for the academy because of its proximity to the Mount Olive Correctional Center, as well as to Charleston.

“It’s just that Maclin Hall doesn’t meet our needs,” he said. “We have an excellent relationship with Montgomery and WVU Tech.”