• Establish a comprehensive, affordable health insurance plan, offered through private insurers
• Enroll individuals, families, the self-employed, and workers (who work at least 15 hours per week) in small businesses (that pay at least 60% of the aggregate individual/dependent premium costs)
  
• Cover all the Uninsured within Four Years
  
• Subsidize, on a sliding scale based on ability to pay, persons with annual incomes up to $26,940 (individual) or $45,780 (family of 3)-i.e., up to 300% of Federal Poverty Level (FPL)
  
• Provide partial premium subsidies for similar workers in large, fully insured businesses
  
• Allow uninsured people over 300% FPL to purchase coverage at cost
  
• Pool resources of enrolled individuals, employers, employees, and bad debt and charity care funds to provide access without new State appropriations and to draw federal match for those eligible

Cost
Plan and Control Health Care Costs

• Develop a State Health Plan to set measurable goals for access, cost, and quality health care and a budget for resource allocation
  
• Create Certificate of Need Capital Investment Fund to guide future expenditures
  
• Set a budget, and ask hospitals and physicians to develop a plan for the future of Maine's hospitals
  Use Group Purchasing, Information, and Technology
  
• Coordinate insurance purchasing by public entities through a Public Purchasers' Steering Group
  
• Dirigo Health coverage for the uninsured will reduce bad debt and charity care, and pay market rates to providers
  
• Disclose to the public average charges for common services performed at hospitals and by other providers
  
• Reduce paperwork by requiring providers to use electronic submissions
  
• Strengthen regulation of insurance rates
  
• Ask providers and insurers to limit price increases and margins to 3%, and report results to public. Failure to meet targets will trigger regulatory action

Quality
Oversight and Public Health Protection

• Establish the Maine Quality Forum to provide best practices information
  
• Provide user-friendly and accurate Web-based consumer information about health and health care
  
• Amend the Constitution to protect the Fund for Healthy Maine
  
  
  

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