Friday, June 27, 2008

Maine's Dirigo Plan: Promised Savings Fail to Show

By Tarren R. Bragdon

Categories: Maine

Voters in Maine were assured that the state-run Dirigo health plan would never require an increase in taxes. Those promises were repeatedly broken, most recently when Governor Baldacci signed the April 15th tax increase into law.

Yet there is no chance of Dirigo coming close to meeting its goal of covering Maine's uninsured, and despite that, politicians just passed millions of dollars in new taxes on beer, wine, soda, flavored water, and even health insurance claims.

A new report from the Maine Heritage Policy Center offers the facts about and failures of the plan. You can read the whole thing here.