You may recall that, back in mid-February, we blew the whistle on Maine�s DirigiChoice plan (the Pine Tree State�s subsidized health-care program). Seems that, notwithstanding all its good intentions, the plan has been a colossal failure, and a further demonstration of the folly of government meddling.
Well, the hits just keep on coming:
Apparently, the state has an agreement with Anthem (Blue Cross/Shield), under which Anthem administers the plan. Recently, Governor Baldacci expressed an interest in vacating that agreement, in favor of a self-insured plan. The idea would be that the state could save money by taking a more direct role in the plan�s implementation.
Uh-hunh.
Opponents argue that a self-insured program couldn�t guarantee these savings, and that such an arrangement would violate the promise of a public-private partnership.
The word that comes to mind here is: disingenuous.
There�s no program that will guarantee savings, at least in the long run. At best, any new plan could come in and generate some. And how, exactly, would such a scheme violate any partnership? It doesn�t seem likely that Maine would self-administer the plan; presumably DirigiChoice would contract with a professional administrator to handle the actual operations. That�s still public-private.
The only (marginally) valid objection seems to be the possibility of DC participants losing coverage if the plan goes belly up. I suspect, however, that (given the stakes) the state itself � or rather, the taxpayers � would them bail out.
Of course, there�s the possibility that the plan could choose another carrier when the agreement with Anthem runs out. I�m not familiar with the Pine Tree State�s health insurance market, but I bet I know who�s next at bat (hint: do the initials UHC ring a bell?).
Ch-Ching!
UPDATE: More on this subject, specifically Massachusetts' efforts, at Health Business Blog.
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