Destroying Insurance Markets - Maine

In June 2003, Maine Gov. John Baldacci (D) signed the Dirigo Health Reform Act, creating a government-run, taxpayer-funded health insurance and medical care program for the state. Many have praised the initiative, which became effective in September of that year, as a bold effort to reform Maine’s health insurance market.

But the individual and small group insurance markets in Maine had been in turmoil for more than a decade because of previous “bold
efforts” to reform health insurance.

In 1993, the Maine Legislature imposed guaranteed issue and modified community rating on the individual insurance market in an effort to increase access to health insurance for the uninsured population.