Maine’s health insurance panel composed almost entirely of industry members (GOP/LePage suckage)

http://bangordailynews.com/2011/08/10/health/insurance-exchange-committee-faulted-for-lack-of-‘consumer-voice’/

AUGUSTA, Maine — With one notable exception, a new nine-member committee charged with developing Maine’s federally mandated health insurance exchange is made up almost entirely of health care and insurance insiders.

The stand-out appointee is Jamie Bissonnette Lewey of Pembroke, chairwoman of the Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission. Lewey is a longtime advocate for criminal justice and health care equity. She is a member of the Abenaki Indian Tribe and is married to Newell Lewey, a member of the tribal council for the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point.

Committee chairman Joe Bruno of Raymond, a former Republican state legislator, owner of a southern Maine pharmacy group, and board member of the Dirigo Health Agency, says the industry-weighted board appointed by Gov. Paul LePage is well positioned to tackle the job of building Maine’s insurance exchange.

“Our role is technical in nature,” Bruno said on Wednesday. “We’ll be looking at the building and integration of the system, not looking at policy at all, really. We’re trying to keep it apolitical.”

<more>

:puke: