Monday, March 17, 2008

Increasing Taxes for Additional Health Funding Would Hurt Maine Families

By J. Scott Moody

Categories: Maine

Tarren Bragdon, chief executive officer of The Maine Heritage Policy Center, testified before the Maine Legislature's Joint Standing Committee on Insurance and Financial Services on March 13, 2008 and presented reasons to oppose additional funding to prop up the failing Dirigo Health program. Mr. Bragdon commented, "Dirigo Health was started in 2003 with the goal of covering 128,000 Maine people in a self-supporting health insurance program which would need no further taxes or state funds after the first year." The bill, LD 2247- An Act to Continue Maine's Leadership in Covering the Uninsured, is before the committee currently and would increase taxes for addtional Dirigo Funding. "Today, the program covers only 4,466 Mainers who were previously uninsured, which is less than 4% of the 2003 goal, in a program that costs $45 million a year," noted Mr. Bragdon.