WASHINGTON, D.C. – With five days left in the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) open-enrollment period, U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) today recognized one of the companies in Maine responsible for helping Mainers sign-up for affordable, high-quality health care coverage under the law.

In remarks delivered on the Senate floor, Senator King lauded Maine Community Health Options and the work the organization has done to help more than 60,000 people in Maine sign up for healthcare coverage. As one of 23 cooperatives established by the ACA, and the only one in Maine, the Lewiston-based organization has adopted an innovative approach that includes a member-elected board of directors, lower-cost chronic health support, and extensive community outreach to help people understand the benefits of their health care coverage – all while facilitating a drop in insurance rates for its members and other Mainers using the federal healthcare exchange.  

“I want to talk about a part of the Affordable Care Act that gets very little mention, very little discussion, very little controversy – and it's a provision that enabled local organizations within states to form cooperative insurance entities, to form nonprofits to provide insurance to their citizens,” said Senator King. “And today, I want to talk about one of those and one of the most successful in the country, the Maine Community Health Options program. It's a story of an opportunity, it's a story of vision, it's a story of an idea, it's a story of risk-taking, it's a story of creative and dedicated Maine professions who were willing to take a risk and try to implement a new idea.”

“So I come to the floor today just to share some good news about an aspect of the Affordable Care Act that is absolutely working, and it is making a huge difference in the lives of thousands – tens of thousands of Maine people,” he continued. “Better health coverage, better health, at a lower cost – what's not to like about that formula? I’m very proud of what these entrepreneurial individuals in Maine have undertaken and the success that they have enjoyed so far, and look forward to working with them as they continue the project that has meant so much to my people.”

Operating out of a rehabilitated textile mill in Lewiston, MCHO employs more than 130 people and has contracted with a local call center to provide additional customer support during the enrollment period. The group has also expanded its coverage area this year to include New Hampshire.  

Open enrollment is the period of time during which qualified individuals can enroll in a healthcare plan through the ACA Marketplace. For coverage starting in 2015, the Open Enrollment Period is November 15, 2014 – February 15, 2015. Individuals may also qualify for Special Enrollment Periods outside of Open Enrollment if they experience certain qualifying life events.  

For more information about Maine Community Health Options, click HERE.

MCHO Chief Executive Officer Kevin Lewis and Chief Operating Officer Robert Hillman watched King’s remarks live from the Senate Gallery. Senator King’s floor speech can be viewed HERE, and an unofficial transcript of his remarks is included below:

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“I rise to talk about a little-discussed aspect of the Affordable Care Act. But before touching on the main subject, I should point out that, I think as of the tonight there will be more than 11 million Americans who will have already signed up for health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act so far this year. And of course the deadline is coming up next week, and this weekend could be a very large influx of new, newly insured Americans, which I think is something that we should all feel very proud of and should celebrate.

But I want to talk about a part of the Affordable Care Act that gets very little mention, very little discussion, very little controversy – and it's a provision that enabled local organizations within states to form cooperative insurance entities, to form nonprofits to provide insurance to their citizens. And today, I want to talk about one of those and one of the most successful in the country, the Maine Community Health Options program. It's a story of an opportunity, it's a story of vision, it's a story of an idea, it's a story of risk-taking, it's a story of creative and dedicated Maine professions who were willing to take a risk and try to implement a new idea.

It's one of the health insurance co-ops – as I mentioned – that was established by the Affordable Care Act. The Affordable Care Act provided the opportunity to develop something new and different in health insurance, a company where purchasers of health insurance also become members, and then elect other members to serve on the board of directors of their insurance company. Kevin Lewis and Robert Hillman, two of the founders, saw an opportunity in the ACA to develop this idea that they knew was needed to address the challenges of health care coverage for Maine citizens. Working with a group of people in Maine who shared their concerns about health care they built Maine Community Health Options built on this vision of meeting Maine people's health insurance needs in a direct and hands-on way.

Would it work? Nobody knew. When the enrollment opened last year, their goal, their hope, their vision was for 15,000 signups. By the time the dust settled at the deadline last spring, they had 40,000 signups – 83% of the marketplace signups in Maine had signed up with this fledgling company. And this year, I’m told, as of today they have over 60,000 signups. I did a tour of their offices recently in in Lewiston, Maine, and we talked about this phenomenon of the signups that came unexpectedly – and it reminded me of a TV commercial a few years ago where these young people start an internet start-up, and they see sales orders coming in and they're happy and they start to come in even faster, and they get more excited and they start to come in faster, and they look at each other and say what do we do now? Well, these people in Maine exactly experienced that. Great, it's working. A few more, wow, that's great. And then it went crazy. They all shook their heads when we talked about this up in Lewiston a few weeks ago and said that's exactly the way it felt.

Well, this sounds sort of simple and straightforward, yet it wasn't. When those 40,000 folks were signing up and the systems were challenged, Maine community health options faced those issues head on, figured out where the problems were, addressed them, communicated to members quickly and directly. That’s really the Maine way, Mr. President.

The explosion of the growth of this little company from zero to 60,000 is a jobs story as well. Maine community health options now employs over 130 people and has even contracted with a local call center in Maine to provide additional customer support during this enrollment period. And even their chosen location is a good-news story. It's great news story for New England and for Maine because they're in an old textile mill, which of course the textile industry – which flourished in New England up through the 1950's, but then left these beautiful old mills – and in Lewiston, Maine, one of these mills, first one floor and now two floors, is being repurposed for this 21st century project of bringing health insurance to the people of Maine. It is humming with activity and new jobs and people supporting their families.

It is also a local control story. Maine Community Health Options recently held elections for the board, a board that has to be made up of 51% of their individuals who are members who are elected by other members. In other words, the people who use the products, who buy the health insurance, are actually making decisions about how those products should be designed, and they're responsible to the folks who elect them. Like us.

The structure of the organization is only part of the story. They are also – and I think this is very important – they're also focused on the business of health, individual health and community health. They're focused on prevention. And, Mr. President, the cheapest medical intervention of all is the one that never occurs, because people have preventive care that keeps them from more serious chronic care. They have a chronic illness support program, a tobacco cessation program, which are both designed to make it easier and cheaper for members to manage chronic care or stop smoking. And that's how we're going to save money in the healthcare system.

They have a behavioral health partnership creating a nearly seamless transition for members in need of short-term mental health services with no co-pay for the first three visits. They're doing community outreach. They recognize that many people who have never had health insurance coverage before don't really fully understand how to use it. Their community outreach effort includes informational presentations on health care for members and nonmembers alike.

And another part of the good news story, particularly in light of the change in the chair, is that Maine community health options has just expanded coverage into New Hampshire, and is providing a new health insurance option to the people of New Hampshire. Whereas last year, as I understand it, New Hampshire only had one option on their exchange. Now I think they have at least two and perhaps three or four, one of which, I commend to the President, is based in Lewiston, Maine.

Finally, and I think this is very important, what has this done for rates? For many years, and I think we've lost sight of this in the last couple of years, for many years one of the problems in health care in this country was the exaggerated inflation of health care costs. Five, six, seven, eight percent a year was not unusual. In the late 1990's and the early first decade of this century, that was the typical somewhat, expected inflation in the rates of health care costs – in the costs of health care and therefore in insurance rates. Well, Maine Community Health Options not only has reduced its already competitive rates – reduced its rates by 1% this year, but that competitive pressure we believe has also brought pressure to reduce rates for other providers and other carriers in Maine.

Madam President, this is a great news story. This is people that saw an opportunity created by the Affordable Care Act to create a new kind of health insurance company that's owned and run by its members, that's delivering health care, quality health care, insurance coverage to the people of Maine and now the people of New Hampshire, that is helping to control costs, and I think perhaps most importantly, is taking an active role in assisting its members in improving their own health.

Of course this is about cost and of course it's about access, and of course it's about all the mechanics of health insurance. But in the end, if the result is healthier people, people that need the intervention of the health care system less frequently, that is a huge win for those individuals, for our state, for our region, and for our country.

So I come to the floor today just to share some good news about an aspect of the Affordable Care Act that is absolutely working, and it is making a huge difference in the lives of thousands – tens of thousands of Maine people. Better health coverage, better health, at a lower cost – what's not to like about that formula?

I’m very proud of what these entrepreneurial individuals in Maine have undertaken and the success that they have enjoyed so far, and look forward to working with them as they continue the project that has meant so much to my people.”

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