Wall Street Journal Publishes Op-Ed by Adam Brackemyre '00

March 15, 2006

March 15, 2006, Greencastle, Ind. - Adam D. Brackemyre, assistant director of legislative affairs for the Council for Affordable Health Insurance and 2000 graduate of DePauw University, recently co-authored an op-ed that appeared in the Wall Street Journal. "Welcome to the Pine Tree state, where a program that the governor claims has saved the state millions of dollars means that your taxes go... up," begins the column.

Brackemyre and Tarren Bradgon write of Maine's Dirigo Health, a program that "regulates the state's health-care system and includes a subsidized health-insurance program." It was designed to "reduce cost-shifting and health-system costs and ultimately cover all 130,000 uninsured Mainers within five years, including 31,000 uninsured in year one... It hasn't worked out that way."

In the February 16 column, the two write, "The Dirigo board is levying a Savings Offset Payment, or SOP -- a remarkably innovative name for a new claims tax -- to 'recover' every dollar that the state says it has 'saved.' This SOP is similar to a sales tax; a 2.4% surcharge is added to all paid health-care claims. When applied, this new tax will cost the average individual about $70 and the average family about $200 a year -- at a time when most individual insurance policyholders are already absorbing a 16% increase in their insurance premiums."

The complete column can be accessed by clicking here.

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