Cholesterol

For others, like Leah Deragon, 34, DirigoChoice is too costly.

Ms.

Deragon, who runs a Portland nonprofit center that helps low-income families with new babies, said that although she and her husband, an engineering student, qualified for a subsidy, they could not afford the roughly $300 out-of-pocket cost each month.

She remains uninsured, forgoing annual checkups and using student loan money when she needed dental work.

“For us it was very frustrating,” said Ms.

Deragon, who shops at Goodwill and lives in her mother’s home in Gorham to save money.

“We earned, I think, $16,000 last year.

We can’t do $200 or $300 a month and still put gas in our car.

Come the end of the month, we would be forced to hitchhike.” And there is John Henderson, 42, of Auburn, who enrolled in DirigoChoice in 2006 for about $90 a month while working at an L.

L.

Bean warehouse, a job he kept to 20 hours a week so his income would qualify him for such a low rate.

But he dropped the plan this year when rates increased by 13.4 percent on average.

Mr.

Henderson, who has diabetes and is currently jobless, said he had stopped once-regular doctor’s appointments and some medications that “I have just no hope of affording.” Ms.

Schneider’s group is su...

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