Friday, May 4, 2007
Voters will have a chance next year to decide whether the state should adopt a single-payer health-care system if organizers of a new campaign can gather enough signatures to put the issue on the statewide ballot.
The group is being led by Jonathan Carter and Pat LaMarche, both of whom have run for governor as Green Independent candidates, and Chris Miller, who challenged Gov. John Baldacci in last year's Democratic primary.
To get the universal health-care question on the November 2008 ballot, organizers need to gather signatures from at least 55,000 voters.
"It's clear that we need this," Carter said during an event at Portland City Hall. "We need this for our citizens, and we need it for our businesses."
The effort to go directly to voters follows legislative reforms that have fallen short of making health care available to everyone.
In 2001, legislation authorized a comprehensive study of single-payer health care, but it went no further. Subsequent efforts to expand access to health insurance have failed to provide universal care.
"Once again, people want things in Maine that elected leaders cannot, for whatever reason, deliver," LaMarche said on Thursday.
It's unclear how the issue might fare at the ballot box, but polling in 2002 by Market Decisions of South Portland showed that 57 percent of Maine people favored a universal single-payer system. In a nonbinding referendum in November 2001, nearly 52 percent of Portland voters said they supported the concept.
However, there is a difference between supporting the idea of single-payer health care and supporting a specific proposal. On Thursday, the campaign's organizers didn't offer many specifics on how their plan would work.
Leaders of the signature drive said that they are seeking "publicly financed, privately delivered health care," comparing their initiative to the Canadian health-care system.
They said they are drafting language that will be sent to the Secretary of State's Office, which approves any ballot language that is sent to voters.
Andrew Coburn, director of the Institute for Health Policy at the University of Southern Maine's Muskie School of Public Service, said that any successful reform will have to address rising costs in the health-care system.
But whatever the specifics, he said that a referendum campaign will spur public discussion.
"I think it's very good and healthy that citizens have the opportunity to discuss these issues," Coburn said.
The single-payer referendum campaign comes nearly four years after Baldacci's Dirigo Health program was signed into law.
The governor's program, which seeks to expand the ranks of the insured, has yet to achieve its goal of providing health care to all Mainers.
"We're still moving in that direction. It's not something that happens overnight," said Baldacci's spokesman, David Farmer.
Asked about the ballot initiative, he responded, "We'll have to see what their particulars are, and whether they're reasonable, whether they're doable."
Organizers of the signature drive are seeking volunteers on their Web site, www.healthcareme.com.
One of the campaign's first volunteers was Steve Dunn, a political neophyte who lives in Bangor and said he does not have health insurance.
"When you're sick, you should be able to see a doctor," Dunn said. "I don't think anybody should be denied health care in this, the wealthiest country on Earth."
The campaign's leaders argued that a single-payer system would be good for many businesses, making Maine more competitive economically. But they also predicted that their proposal will face stiff opposition from the health insurance industry.
Mark Ishkanian, spokesman for the state's largest private insurer, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Maine, declined to comment. The company has said previously that a single-payer system is unrealistic without changes at the federal level.
Staff Writer Kevin Wack can be contacted at 791-6365 or at:
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