Bye Bye Military Health Care‏

As in all socialized health care systems, the Department of Defense’s health care for military personnel has its challenges from quality of care of dependents, inadequate personnel, the occasional Jihadist, and the cold indifference that bureaucracies can create like we saw at Walter Reed at its nadir.

As we continue to need more effectiveness and patient care for those wounded on the field, one would think that the Obama Administration would get only a proven performer to oversee DOD health care. Someone with a proven record of success.

Do we have one?

Former Maine Gov. John Baldacci has been appointed to a high-profile position overseeing health care reform efforts within the Department of Defense.

Sources close to the former governor said Tuesday that Baldacci, 56, is already on the job as Director of Military Health Reform in the office of Dr. Clifford L. Stanley, under secretary of defense for Personnel and Readiness.

A former Governor? Wow, you think – that is top-shelf! Well – let’s examine the record.

In 2003, the state to great fanfare enacted its own version of universal health care. Democratic Governor John Baldacci signed the plan into law with a bevy of familiar promises. By 2009, it would cover all of Maine’s approximately 128,000 uninsured citizens. System-wide controls on hospital and physician costs would hold down insurance premiums. There would be no tax increases. The program was going to provide insurance for everyone and save businesses and patients money at the same time.

How did that work out for ‘ya?

After five years, fiscal realities as brutal as the waves that crash along Maine’s famous coastline have hit the insurance plan. The system that was supposed to save money has cost taxpayers $155 million and is still rising.

…

Last year, DirigoCare was so desperate for cash that the legislature broke its original promise of no tax hikes and proposed an infusion of funds through a beer, wine and soda tax, similar to what has been floated to pay for the Obama plan. Maine voters rejected these taxes by two to one. Then this year the legislature passed a 2% tax on paid health insurance claims. Taxing paid insurance claims sounds a tad churlish, but the previous funding formula was so complicated that it was costing the state $1 million a year in lawsuits.

Unlike the federal government, Maine has a balanced budget requirement. So out of fiscal necessity, the state has now capped the enrollment in the program and allowed no new entrants. Now there is a waiting list. DirigoChoice has become yet another expensive, failed experiment in government-run health care, alongside similar fiascoes in Massachusetts and Tennessee.

Not everyone sees it this way. Noting the similarities between the Maine program and the Congressional initiative, Karynlee Harrington, the executive director of the Dirigo Health Agency, boasted recently: “DirigoChoice is consistent with what we think the definition of a public health option is.” It certainly is.

I guess we can expect the President to name Rod Blagojevich the next FBI Director any day now.