Candidates differ in health care plans
Jonathan Carter backs a single-payer system, while John Baldacci
supports a nonprofit plan.

By Bonnie Washuk
Staff Writer

    AUGUSTA- At a gubernatorial forum Monday at the Augusta Civic Center, Democrat
John Baldacci and Green Independent Jonathan Carter identified the health care crisis as the
highest priority of their campaigns.
     There the two ended any similarity in positions.
     If elected, Baldacci would create a nonprofit insurance plan and expand Medicaid cov-
erage.  Carter would sign a single-payer bill and pay for it by raising taxes.
     Republican candidate Peter Cianchette and Independent John Michael were no-shows
at the event.
     Baldacci is not for single-payer health care, he's for universal health care, saying all
Mainers must be covered.  Carter is for a single-payer plan, saying it's the only way out of
the health care crisis.
     On Day One of his administration, Baldacci said he'd assemble experts to begin planning
how to improve access and affordability, and create a master health care plan for the state.
     "We need to act, and we need to act now, because the business people, the working
people, are looking for releif now," Baldacci said. "They want us to come up with viable al-
ternatives that can help the situation that is deteriorating.  They call it the death spiral: fewer
insurance companies, higher costs, more people left without."
     Baldacci said he would create a nonprofit insurance plan, "The Maine Health Plan," that
would cover more people more cheaply.  He'd merge existing plans given to state employees,
teachers and municipalities and create a larger, more powerful pool.  Maine families and small
businesses would be able to buy into the plan.  He'd seek federal dollars to help make pre-
miums affordable.  Standardized insurance forms would save on administrative and overhead
costs.
     Also, the uninsured would be covered by expanding Medicaid so that it covers more people,
up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level, which would cover some moderate-income wor-
kers.  That, Baldacci said, would put an end to cost shifting that makes private premiums higher.
     To help Mainers make healthier choices, he'd promote health education in schools.
     Saying there's no one answer, Baldacci said he would try a variety of ways to lower costs 
and expand coverage.

'Total choice'
     Carter offered a plan of higher taxes and health care for all.
     "I'm the only candidate for single payer, total coverage, total choice," Carter said, adding it
would save money for businesses struggling with high premiums.  As governor, he'd sign the single
payer, universal health care bill passed by the House of Representatives 18 months ago.  'I've
already picked out the pen I'll use when I get to the Blaine House that's going to sign Rep. Paul
Volenik's bill and put it into law so that no Mainer has to worry about coverage," Carter said.
     He said he knows how to pay for it.  "You're going to hear folks tell you a single-payer system 
will break the bank.  But it won't.  We've done the homework."
     About $5 billion is spent in Maine a year on health care: $1.7 billion comes from Medicaid and
Medicare; the rest Carter would get from raising payroll taxes paid by employers.  A payroll tax
between 7 and 13 percent would more than cover the costs, Carter said.
     Companies already paying for worker's health care would save money, he said.  Companies
that are not but that should be, would have to pay more, Carter said.
     Referring to Baldacci's plan, Carter said universal health care delivered through a nonprofit
company "doesn't meet the bill."  A single-payer system would save the state $500 million a year,
Carter said.
     Holding up a yellow piece of paper, Carter said his wife is a teacher.  Recently she received
a notice that Anthem Inc. premiums are going up 19 to 26 percent, depending on the plan.  "This
is going on all across Maine. ...  When do we say enough is enough?  When do we tell the head
of Anthem, who gets paid $15 million a year, that that's extreme, when there are people who have
to make choices between health care, college education, their mortgage and food?" Carter asked.

Missing
     "I'm disappointed Cianchette did not come," said Joe Ditre of Consumers for Affordable Health
Care, which organized the event. "They told me Friday he could not come because he needed time
to prepare for tonight's debate.  My response was, 'so does everyone else.'  This is an opportunity
for candidates to give their positions on health care."
     According to Ditre, Cianchette has little to offer voters on health care.  "In reviewing his position,
it's more of the same.  A lot of it has to do with consumers using less health care and paying more.
That strategy has failed.  It's clear Cianchette doesn't have a position on universal health care."
     Cianchette's campaign manager Roy Lenardson disagreed.
     "Joe Ditre wants one thing: a government-run, single-payer, universal health care system.  We
disagree with that.  That would deny access and increase costs."
     Cianchette did not attend the forum because he was busy, Lenardson said.  "We had Christy
Todd Whitman in town, Peter was with the NAACP, and our debate prep folks were getting him
ready (for Monday night's debate)."  Cianchette is committed to a health care debate in 
mid-October, Lenardson said.
     Ditre said he did not know why Michael did not attend.  Efforts to reach Michael or his cam-
paign staffer, Belinda Gerry, were unsuccessful.

September 24, 2002

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