|
medpundit |
||
 |
 |
|
Thursday, February 16, 2006The Dirigo board is levying a Savings Offset Payment, or SOP--a remarkably innovative name for a new claims tax--to 'recover' every dollar that the state says it has 'saved.' This SOP is similar to a sales tax; a 2.4% surcharge is added to all paid health-care claims. When applied, this new tax will cost the average individual about $70 and the average family about $200 a year--at a time when most individual insurance policyholders are already absorbing a 16% increase in their insurance premiums. But, you may ask, if the program is saving all this money, why is a new tax necessary? The answer is that without the SOP, Dirigo Health's high costs would bankrupt the program. This little bit about its implementation was interesting: When the law creating Dirigo Health was signed, proponents said it would reduce cost-shifting and health-system costs and ultimately cover all 130,000 uninsured Mainers within five years, including 31,000 uninsured in year one. It hasn't worked out that way. Through the first nine months only 1,600 previously uninsured individuals enrolled in Dirigo Health's insurance product, called DirigoChoice. The other 6,000 who enrolled simply traded their private health insurance for taxpayer-subsidized DirigoChoice. The program continues to spend millions subsidizing insurance for those already insured. Some of the doctors and hospitals in our area have been trying an experiment to help out the uninsured. Called Access to Care, it provides essentially free care to people without insurance. Doctors provide their services for free, and patients pay a minimal one time fee to participate. I considered volunteering briefly, but decided against it largely because it sets up a disincentive for people to purchase their own insurance. Why would someone opt for an employer-based insurance program that might cost them $100 or more a month when they can participate in Access to Care for less than that a year? posted by Sydney on 2/16/2006 08:51:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
|
