Dirigo Health insurance to end Dec. 31
The Dirigo Health Insurance program is set to end Dec. 31 as administrators of the state insurance program transition individual and small business customers to other plans through a federal health insurance exchange.
The Bangor Daily News reported that trustees of the Dirigo Health program, implemented during Democratic Gov. John Baldacci’s administration, opted against a one-month extension of the program in response to the troubled rollout of the federal health insurance exchange website Healthcare.gov.
During a Monday meeting, Dirigo Health’s board chairman Joe Bruno said an estimated 2,800 people still hold policies through the program and that most of those remaining will fall into a coverage gap in the federal health insurance exchange. That is, they earn too much to qualify for Medicaid and too little to qualify for subsidies for buying insurance through the law. Bruno said they estimate 1,400 to 2,000 Dirigo customers will fall into that gap.
The Dirigo board will meet again in February to determine what to do with other programs it oversees, like the Maine Quality Forum, which collects and distributes data on health care quality.
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