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Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Health Care Reform Articles - January 21, 2014

Maine lawmakers to consider single-payer health care system

Supporters of the bill want to adopt a government-run program, but a critic calls that unwise and expensive.

Jim Miller, president of WoodenBoat Publications in Brooklin, wants the decisions about how to provide health insurance for his employees taken out of his hands.
“I hate playing God,” he said. “Every spring I am forced into that position.”
Spring is when his company’s health insurance policies come up for renewal and he has to balance rising costs against being fair to his 30 employees.
Miller supports a legislative proposal for Maine to adopt a system that would replace employer-sponsored health insurance with a government-run program.
Starting in 2017, states can adopt such single-payer systems under the Affordable Care Act, using federal funding that now goes to states for programs such as the health insurance marketplace.
Maine’s bill will be discussed by a legislative committee Thursday in Augusta.
“The ACA is the first step toward a single-payer system,” said Rep. Charles Priest, D-Brunswick, the bill’s sponsor.
Priest concedes that it will be hard to get the bill passed this year, with opposition from Republican Gov. Paul LePage.
“Obviously, it’s a new concept for Maine,” Priest said. “I look at now as a time to educate people about single-payer.”
While there are many ways to create a single-payer system, a simple analogy is that Medicare would be expanded to everyone. Other countries, including Canada and the United Kingdom, operate single-payer health care systems.

Law’s Expanded Medicaid Coverage Brings a Surge in Sign-Ups

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