First Meeting with Superintendent of Insurance

On June 17, the first meeting of the summer working group organized by Maine Superintendent of Insurance Mila Kofman was convened. The working group was established to look into how affordable health coverage can be made available to all of Maine’s direct-care workforce. The first meeting was a useful start. A somewhat formal set of introductory remarks set out the scope and intent of the summer’s discussions. The meeting was attended by several members of the Direct Care Worker Coalition (DCWC), including Helen Hanson, Joyce Gagnon, Mollie Baldwin, and me. There were also representatives from Harvard Pilgrim, the Maine State Chamber of Commerce, MaineCare/DHHS, Dirigo Health, and the Governor’s Office (Karynlee Harrington and Trish Riley), as well as five or six members of the Bureau of Insurance (BOI) staff. Senator Sullivan of the Insurance and Financial Services Committee and Representative Campbell of the Health and Human Services Committee also attended, both speaking at length and in strong support of direct-care workers and the need to find a real solution to the question of affordable coverage. The overarching goals of the working group - as defined by the superintendent and the legislators – appear very promising. The superintendent made clear her own longstanding interest in and work on these issues, as well as repeatedly clarifying that the goal of the group was to find a way to provide truly affordable coverage to direct-care workers and their families. She insisted that all options were on the table for discussion. Despite early attempts by some participants to immediately begin looking at the obstacles to coverage - particularly those related to funding sources for subsidizing costs - the superintendent insisted that the group’s first several meetings must focus entirely on educating ourselves and discussing various models and possible solutions before any attempts to torpedo solutions due to cost concerns. Senator Sullivan stated that she was not interested in market reforms. She also said she expects not only a report by October 1st but “bipartisan legislation” to be drafted from the report for consideration in the next legislative session. I believe that this is enormously positive. It seems like the superintendent, the deputy superintendent (Judith Shaw, who will be heading up this effort for the BOI), and various well-positioned legislators are all taking this very seriously. The superintendent has made her staff available to do research between meetings, and has already expressed interest in having Health Care for Health Care Workers staff talk to the group about models from other states. Everywhere I look I see reason for us to be hopeful, and to take this effort seriously. Summer is a hard time to get people together (and to want to really dig into the nitty-gritty details of various coverage models and relevant political strategizing), but I recommend we put all possible effort into this endeavor . This seems like a very good opportunity for the DCWC and one that we would do well to use to our best advantage. The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, July 1 at 10 a.m. at the Bureau of Insurance in Gardiner. Kurt Wise Fiscal Policy Analyst Maine Center for Economic Policy I apologize for the delay in getting this posted. -Helen