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For
Immediate Release
March 24,
2010 | |
Communications
Coordinator
1-800-838-0388
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Maine Consumer Health
Advocate One of Eleven
Chosen for National
Panel
Joe
Ditré Will Help Ensure National
Health Reform is Implemented as
Planned |
(Augusta) Consumers for Affordable Health Care's
Executive Director (CAHC), Joe Ditré, is one of
11 newly appointed people nationwide to represent
consumers before the National Association of Insurance
Commissioners (NAIC). This comes at a
critical time since national health reform just
passed. Joe will help ensure that policies within
the bill are carried through properly and will make sure
any new national health policies represent consumers'
best interests. Joe will join a small group of other
consumer representatives (18 funded and 10 unfunded)
from across the country and travel to the three annual
meetings of the NAIC. The first meeting of
which is Thursday, March 25, 2010.
"This is a great honor to be appointed by a
panel of Insurance Commissioners and Superintendents
from among nationwide applicants. I look forward to
working with the other consumer representatives and the
nation's insurance regulators in order to protect
insurance consumers. I hope to bring the voices of Maine
people in some meaningful way to the discussions. Often
when it comes to creating policies and laws the
interests of insurance industry professionals and
political insiders outweighs the voice of the
people. I am eager to help make sure the consumer
voice becomes a larger part of the discussions around
health care and coverage," says Joe
Ditré.
Joe has 26 years experience in
researching and analyzing private and public health
insurance policies and programs.
"If
national reform passes, the NAIC consumer
representatives will have an even greater role. National
reforms will accelerate the need to work on
implementation with our Insurance Superintendent, Mila
Kofman, the Chairs and members of the Insurance and
Financial Services Committee of the Maine Legislature,
the Governor's Office of Health Policy and Finance, and
the Dirigo Health Agency. As members on the frontline of
advocacy with the insurance commissioners, we will work
to ensure that national reforms benefit and protect
consumers," says Joe.
As a consumer
representative on the panel, Joe will focus his
attention on the Health Insurance and Managed Care
Committee of the NAIC.
"It is great to
have Joe join our ranks as a consumer representative.
Last year, about three or four of the consumer reps had
an interest in health insurance. This year, there are
many more. It will be an exciting year as we watch
health reform move forward at the national level," says
Kevin Lucia, Assistant Research Professor of the Health
Policy Institute at Georgetown University. Lucia was
appointed to the Consumer Liaison Representative panel
in 2009.
The application process required
submission of articles, reports, legal briefs, written
comments to proposed rules, and other relevant
background information related to the applicant's life
work in the area of insurance policy, regulation, and
law on behalf of consumers. Funded consumer
representatives are provided with small stipends to
cover travel and lodging to make it affordable for
them attend the NAIC meetings.
Since
Consumers for Affordable Health Care's founding in 1988,
Joe Ditré has directed and managed the general
operations of CAHC and has provided policy and legal
analysis. He has been appointed to numerous commissions
and task forces by both Democratic and Republican
Governors. Consumers for Affordable Health Care is one
of only a handful of consumer health organizations in
the United States that offers a toll-free Consumer
HelpLine service (1-800-965-7476), a statewide Outreach
and Education program, a Health Law Program, and a full
research and policy reporting program. One of the
Projects that CAHC operates is called the Insurance
Transparency and Affordability Project (ITAP). ITAP has
advocated for strong transparency laws in Maine and most
recently supported the passage of Public Laws 2009,
Chapters 350 (public reporting of health care costs and
quality by individual provider) and 439 (making health
insurance rate filings public and public posting of
insurance certificates of coverage).
Joe is co-author of the recent report on
lifetime and annual benefit caps called False
Security: Health Insurance That Doesn't Pay When You
Need It Most (2010). Last year, he co-authored
A Call to Action 2009: The Transparency
Imperative, which resulted in Maine lawmakers
adopting two sweeping transparency laws to protect Maine
health insurance consumers and patients.
He also co-authored At Risk: Small
Business Health Insurance in Maine (1999) along
with Christopher St. John and Lisa Pohlman of the Maine
Center for Economic Policy, and has co-authored the
following three reports with Hilary Schneider: Off
the Charts: Unsustainable Hospital Cost Growth in
Maine (2004), When, Where and How Much:
Improving Maine's Certificate of Need Program
(2004), and Briefing Book to the Guiding Principles
for Health Reform (2005).
He
graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School
in 1983 where he was awarded the Dean Jefferson B.
Fordham Human Rights Award by the Penn Law School
Faculty. Joe lives in Manchester, Maine with his
wife, Dyan, and two daughters, Maggie and
Rosie. |
Consumers for Affordable Health Care
is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that has been
helping Maine people get quality, affordable health care
for more than 20 years.
# # #
For more information or to schedule interviews
contact: Cherilee Budrick, Communications Coordinator
Consumers for Affordable Health
Care 207-622-7083 cbudrick@mainecahc.org
Consumers for Affordable
Health Care * P.O. Box 2490 *
Augusta, ME *
04330-2490 | |
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