Obama’s health care reform, which Congresswoman Chellie Pingree wholeheartedly voted for and supports today, has begun to take effect.

On Oct. 1, the first requirements reshaping one’s health insurance costs started. And while the president and Pingree made promises many times that costs will be reduced by the reform legislation, the facts are now coming out.

I am a small businessperson, who has for years provided health insurance for my company’s employees, and each year has seen increasing state mandates on coverage and the restriction of not being allowed to cross state lines to purchase less expensive insurance.

Such regulation has led directly to higher and higher insurance premiums for my employees’ insurance program.

During many of these years, Pingree was serving in the Maine Legislature and voted for these state mandates and restrictions. Now, Obama’s health care reform, with Pingree’s approval, passes with its pages and pages of new federal mandates.

The result, the outcome of this new law for my employees, is not a reduction in costs, not even a modest slowdown in the rate of past increases, but a 37.5 percent increase in our plan’s premiums on Dec. 1.

Pingree’s promises to reduce health insurance costs now were cheap. The facts are not. I will not be voting for her on Nov. 2. Her “help” has caused us too much hurt.

Donn Gifford

Farmingdale