New research jointly funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Changes in Health Care Financing and Organization (HCFO) Initiative and The Commonwealth Fund, examines Maine's health reform program. The study finds that “over a 20 month period, nearly 15,000 individuals had enrolled in DirigoChoice; though disenrollment reduced enrollment in September 2006 to about 11,100. About a third of all enrollees did not have coverage prior to enrollment.”

The research has numerous implications for other states in regard to the cost and attractiveness of the plan to small businesses; the effectiveness of a “savings offset” approach to funding the program and its ability to expand coverage for the uninsured – estimated in 2002 to be 136,000 in Maine.

The HCFO suggests that “As more states are crafting their own health care reform, the lessons from Maine will serve as useful guidance on the challenges of providing state-based health care coverage, as well as the compromises necessary to reach consensus among key stakeholders.” To learn more about this study and ask questions of the researchers, Debra J. Lipson, M.H.S.A. and James M. Verdier, J.D., join the Cyber Seminar on February 1, 2008 (12:00 pm – 1:30 pm EDT) for a Cyber Seminar hosted by HCFO, the Commonwealth Fund's State Innovations program and RWJF's State Coverage Initiatives (SCI) program.