On Tuesday, 17 July, Governor John Baldacci (D-ME), joined by the state's legislative Democrats, signed into law 18 new health care bills meant to protect the health and welfare of the people of Maine.

You couldn't see the rose-colored glasses on his face, but Baldacci's "Pollyanna" was definitely showing in his prepared statement: "What all these have in common is that they provide further evidence that Maine is the leader in health care reform and in efforts to expand access to quality, affordable health care."

Maine, already heavily burdened with healthcare legislation, has added laws that require health insurers to extend coverage to policy-holder's adult children until age 25, to require health insurers to cover hearing aides, to prohibit advertising of prescription drugs on software sold in Maine, to ensure sterile supplies for needle exchange programs, and to regulate access and screening for HIV and cancer.

Increasing health care costs, postpartum depression, eating disorders, and the role of dental hygienists are all to be reviewed by study groups.  November will be Lung Awareness Month, Free Health Clinics will have lower taxes and, disturbingly, despite widely being viewed as an expensive failure and having stopped accepting new enrollees as of 1 July due to cost concerns, Dirigo Health will now be allowed the even more expensive proposition of self-insurance.

Noticeably absent from Tuesday's "Glad Game" shenanigans was a resolution for the much-needed reform to MaineCare, Maine's overloaded and very broken Medicaid program and a new, functional, self-supporting funding-mechanism for Dirigo Health.

The Maine Legislative Documents signed into new law include:

LD 4 -- An Act to Amend the Prescription Privacy Law

LD 101 -- An Act to Enhance Screening for Breast Cancer

LD 144 -- An Act to Support Maine's Free Clinics

LD 243 -- An Act to Establish November as Lung Cancer Awareness Month

LD 429 -- An Act to Improve Access to HIV Testing in Health Care Settings

LD 431 -- An Act to Enable the Dirigo Health Program to be Self-Administered

LD 792 -- An Act Concerning Postpartum Mental Health Education

LD 807 -- An Act to Prevent Overcharging for Prescription Drug Copayments

LD 839 -- An Act to Establish a Prescription Drug Academic Detailing Program

LD 841 -- An Act to Extend Health Insurance Coverage for Dependent Children up to 25-Years of Age

LD 995 -- An Act to Reduce the Expense of Health Care Treatment and Protect the Health of Maine Citizens by Providing Early Screening, Detection and Prevention of Cancer

LD 1044 -- An Act to Address Eating Disorders in Maine

LD 1129 -- An Act to Increase Access to Oral Health Care

LD 1440 -- An Act to Prohibit Inappropriate Software Advertising of Prescription Drugs

LD 1514 -- An Act to Require Health Insurance Coverage for Hearing Aides

LD 1786 -- An Act to Reduce the Spread of Infectious Disease through Shared Hypodermic Apparatuses

LD 1812 -- Resolve, Regarding the Role of Local Regions in Maine's Emerging Public Health Infrastructure

LD 1849 -- An Act to Protect Consumers from Rising Health Care Costs.?