AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — The Maine House on Thursday gave initial approval to a health care overhaul bill by a narrow margin amid objections that some lawmakers were being rushed to judgment on a complex measure that they were still studying.
The bill seeks to ease state regulations and open the health insurance market to more competition.
In a party-line vote, the Republican-majority House approved the bill by a 76-72 margin after a string of Democratic lawmakers took turns complaining that they had not been given time to analyze or even read the proposal before it was heavily revamped and sent out of committee. A Democratic claim that the bill was improperly before the House was overruled.
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Rep. Sharon Treat, D-Hallowell, compared the bill to a used car "rushed off the lot so fast that the Bondo patching wasn't even dry" and said it wouldn't deliver on its promises of lower rates or making insurance available to more Mainers.
"It's just not ready for prime time," she said.
The bill faces further House and Senate votes.
Republicans said the legislation "allows carriers to offer a more diverse array of insurance products to fit a variety of personal and business budgets," but Democrats said it would allow insurers to increase their rates several times more than what's now permitted.
The bill also allows individuals to purchase health insurance from companies licensed in other states. Carriers authorized to sell insurance in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island could offer their individual policies for sale in Maine, supporters said.
Republican supporters, who remained largely mute during the debate, say the overhaul would make insurance available to more Mainers and improve the state's business climate.
"The people of our state are the winners today," House Speaker Robert Nutting, R-Oakland, said in a statement after the vote. "For years, reasonable proposals to fix a dysfunctional health insurance system have faltered in the Legislature. Today we have taken a giant step towards making health insurance more affordable for Maine residents and employers."
Democrats said they could support portions of the package, but had not had a chance to digest changes made less than 24 hours before the vote.
Lawmakers "spend more time vetting Whoopies" than on a complicated and important bill, Rep. Mark Bryant, D-Windham, said in reference to the dessert treat. "This is a sad day in this Legislature," he said.
Treat, a member of the Insurance and Financial Services Committee, said the bill would raise health insurance rates mostly in rural areas, 19 percent in northern Maine and 22 percent Down East. She acknowledged the bill would lower rates for some Mainers, but warned that 14 percent of the individual market would see an average rate increase of 29.9 percent.
Rep. John Martin was upset by a provision he said would allow insurance companies to assign sick people in rural areas to any hospital in the state, rather than to hospitals closer to their homes. For residents of rural Maine, "this bill is a disaster," said the Eagle Lake Democrat.
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