MaineBusiness.com

PORTLAND — Stephen Smith was so happy with GOP Sen. Olympia Snowe's health-reform vote that he stood on the steps of his Deering Street home Tuesday night and wrote her a letter.

Smith, a 62-year-old Web publisher, followed up the letter with a telephone call to Snowe's Auburn headquarters complimenting her decision – he could not get through to her Washington, D.C., offices because the answering machine was filled with messages.

"My health care costs have more than doubled (his deductible is $5,000) in the last five years. We need more competition," he explained. Smith and his wife, Elise, are self-insured.

Smith was one of many Mainers weighing in Tuesday after Snowe broke with her party and voted with Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee to send a 10-year, $829 billion health care overhaul bill to the full Senate.

Snowe could not be reached directly, but her staff issued a statement.

Snowe said she would have preferred to continue modifying the Finance Committee bill, "but it is clear the majority has the votes today to report this legislation. Therefore, I will collaborate with other centrists on the floor to advance improvements. There should be no mistake – my vote today is my vote today. And it in no way forecasts my vote in the future."

Smith, who has diabetes, pays about $10,000 a year in health insurance premiums.

He wrote the letter after being approached by Todd Erickson, who has been going door to door since July on behalf of Working America – an organization pushing for health-care reform. The Maine chapter has collected more than 4,000 hand-written letters from Maine residents and is delivering them to Snowe's offices.

Erickson said the tenor of his campaign has changed as more and more Mainers become aware of the issues.

"The mood has changed from me getting thrown off people's porches to what I would call almost rabid support," Erickson said.

Former Maine Gov. Angus King, a political independent, compared Snowe's decision to the late Sen. Margaret Chase Smith's "Declaration of Conscience" speech in which she called for the nation and her own party to reject McCarthyism.

"This is a vote of conscience and vote of concern for her constituents and concern for the country," King told the Associated Press. "I don't think it's possible for any of us to fully appreciate the pressure she's under and has been under to vote with her Republican colleagues."

Snowe may face a rough time with her Republican colleagues in the Senate, but not in fiercely independent Maine.

"I don't think there is any possible negative implication," Sandy Maisel, director of the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs at Colby College in Waterville, told The Associated Press. "She is untouchable electorally in the state of Maine."

"I was very happy with Senator Snowe," said Lisa McSwain, a small-business owner from Edgecomb. "I'm still wishing for a public option, but at least she came through. She didn't vote party lines."

McSwain's company, Mid Maine Restoration, Inc., which she runs with her husband, builds steeples. It used to cover 100 percent of its employees' health insurance premium costs, but can no longer afford it, she said.

"Today's vote gives us hope. All we are looking for is a little more coverage at a lower price," she said.

Steve Monroe, a builder who lives in Boothbay, said he and his wife cannot afford health insurance. He praised Snowe.

"It (health coverage) would take quite a weight off our shoulders," Monroe said. "It's not just the money end of things. It's the worrying about what would happen if we had a major illness."

Maine Gov. John Baldacci, a Democrat, issued a statement.

"Senator Snowe is to be commended for her efforts and her commitment to work to solve the challenges ahead," the governor said. "This is not the final word on health care reform, but it allows progress to continue and is therefore a huge step forward."

Not everyone was happy with Snowe's decision.

The Maine Heritage Policy Center, a nonprofit research center in Portland, criticized her vote.

Chief Executive Officer Tarren Bragdon said the Finance Committee bill, if approved, would drive up premium costs, limit choices and raise taxes on Maine families.

Bragdon claims the bill – one of five reform bills now before Congress – could negatively impact Medicare as well by cutting benefits and reimbursements.

More than 250,000 Maine residents are entitled to receive Medicare benefits, Bragdon said.

"That's not the kind of health reform Maine needs now, particularly during a recession and a time of record deficit spending in Washington," Bragdon said.

The Maine Small Business Coalition delivered a giant airplane ticket signed by 50 small business owners to Snowe's Portland office on Tuesday.

Coalition chairman Dean Powers said the ticket symbolized the need to get insurance industry lobbyists out of Maine and Washington.

"They care more about their own profits than they do about peoples' health, and they are killing small business in Maine," Powers said in a statement.

Staff Writer Dennis Hoey can be contacted at 791-6365 or at: dhoey@pressherald.com