If you’re not interested in the state of small business in Maine you can skip this post…

Yesterday I attended the second annual meeting for the Maine Small Business Alliance. The MSBA is an organization that tries to get the voices of small business owners (like mine) heard in Augusta.

I had never been to an MSBA meeting before, and I learned a lot.

There are 43,000 businesses in Maine, and only 50 are considered "big businesses." That leaves 42,950 designated as small businesses, for those of you scoring at home. Since there were only about 50 small business owners there yesterday, the organization has a lot of growth potential.

The state of Maine’s Health Insurance sucks. Hell, I knew that before I went. I sat at the health care table and listened to other small business owners who knew a lot more than me talk about the difficulty they have in keeping their employees insured without going out of business.

Although Maine passed a big initiative last year called The Dirigo Health Plan, the people at the table were frustrated that it didn’t do more. There was also a lot of confusion about how to actually institute it at a business, as people seemed to have contrary reports to how it worked.

I asked why we couldn’t get more insurers to come to Maine (there’s been a mass exodus in the five or so years I’ve been here) and the general consensus is (as a state) we’re too old, we smoke too much, we eat too much and there’s not enough of us to insure.

There was also a strong belief that the only real solution would be to create a national health plan and remove the responsibility of health care from the nation’s employers. I heartily agree (the source of another post, or even another blog,) but I didn’t think that was going to be accomplished over a lunch table at the Maple Hill Farm B&B in Hallowell, ME. I wanted something that could help me in February, when my rates are sure to go up again.

Governor Baldacci came to speak and I posed the same question (about health insurers in Maine) to him. I have to say, the man is a serious policy wonk. No matter what question was asked of him, he knew more than any one could expect. Kind of like Bill Clinton w/o the hair or the animal magnetism. (Not really a slam; I’d rather have someone who understands and does his job than someone with good hair.)

What I also liked was that he put some of the responsibility back on us Mainer’s to get fit, stop smoking, and have more sex. (Actually, he didn’t say that last bit, but it would help us to bring down the state’s average age.) He had a few initiatives that would reward this type of behavior, although I wasn’t clear on the details.

I’d still like to see a full-court press to lure more health care insurers into the state, but how this would happen I just don’t know. I get the feeling we’re on our own, and we need to be making healthier choices, and getting people off the emergency room kick for primary care.

I also discovered that Governor Baldacci has posted some family recipes on his Web site, and I understand they’re quite good.

Rich Brooks
Maine Small Business Owner