A blogger known on Twitter as IrishSpy has offered this information about one state’s health care system:
Along with Tennessee and Massachusetts, the state of Maine recently established its own state-paid health insurance system, called DirigoChoice. Its provisions are very similar to provisions in the various national health-care “reform” bills floating around the House and Senate, so Maine’s experience may well provide us with a glimpse of the future under ObamaCare.
And that glimpse should be all we need to just say no:
Here’s how the program was supposed to work. Two government programs would cover the uninsured. First the legislature greatly expanded MaineCare, the state’s Medicaid program. Today Maine families with incomes of up to $44,000 a year are eligible; 22% of the population is now in Medicaid, roughly twice the national average.
Then the state created a “public option” known as DirigoChoice. (Dirigo is the state motto, meaning “I Lead.”) This plan would compete with private plans such as Blue Cross. To entice lower income Mainers to enroll, it offered taxpayer-subsidized premiums. The plan’s original funding source was $50 million of federal stimulus money the state got in 2003. Over time, the plan was to be “paid for by savings in the health-care system.” This is precisely the promise of ObamaCare. Maine saved by squeezing payments to hospitals and physicians.
Read the whole thing to decide for yourself: Maine’s DirigoChoice
