New Health Care Law is Helping Maine Businesses

The Center for Health Reform Initiatives, a project of the Maine Heritage Policy Center, today released a study on Maine’s new health care reform law (PL90) Crisis to Cure: Maine’s Health Care Reform Law is Helping Business. The report uses three unique case studies on real Mainers and real Maine businesses to show how PL90, less than two years into its implementation, is already providing more health insurance choices and cheaper costs.

“Opponents of Maine’s new health care reform law (PL90) erroneously describe the law as ‘a gift to the insurance companies,'” said Center for Health Reform Initiatives Director Joel Allumbaugh. “In reality that gift has come in the form of more stable markets spurring investment and opportunities for insurers to compete for market share.

“Therefore, the real winners are the Maine small businesses and consumers who enjoy more choices and lower priced health insurance options,” said Center for Health Reform Initiatives (CHRI) Director Joel Allumbaugh.

“In the debate about health care policy, we often overlook the practical impacts of regulation on Maine’s business community and health care consumers.  This study highlights real companies and individuals impacted by PL90 and demonstrates that they are the true beneficiaries of vibrant markets that promote innovation and competition,” Allumbaugh said.

The new study from CHRI stands in stark contrasts to analysis from Consumers for Affordable Health Care, a left-leaning advocate of single-payer, government-run health care that predicted PL90 would cause insurance rates to sky-rocket.

Allumbaugh said PL90 is demonstrating who truly benefits when we free our markets to respond to consumer needs, the many individuals and small businesses in Maine who rely on private health insurance—a 56 year old woman with a newly transplanted heart able to afford her anti-rejection medications, a small business lowering their cost rather than accepting a 23 percent rate increase, and another small business able to continue providing health insurance to its employees without having to ask them for a premium contribution.