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“Maryland was one of the first to get the exchange running and take the Medicaid money and we see the impact its had,” said MD Healthcare For All President Vinny Demarco.
“The Affordable Care Act, the Obamacare set, the standard that we can do this here in America and in Maryland, over 400,000 people got health care, including tens of thousands on Eastern Shore people who couldn’t get health care coverage before got it,” he said.
He tells us the state’s Prescription Drug Affordability Board also builds on the ACA foundation to help control prices, and a planned expansion would also set per-person monthly payment caps and an ability to directly negotiate drug prices.
Read the full article at WMDT.com.
]]>March 23, 2024 410-591-9162
On the 14th anniversary of passage of the Affordable Care Act, the Maryland Health Care for All! Coalition applauds the Moore Miller Administration and the Maryland General Assembly for fully implementing and building on this historic law to strengthen the state’s health care system and expand access to care.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) has expanded health coverage to more than 40 million Americans. Maryland has been among the states that have fully implement this law by expanding Medicaid eligibility, creating a reinsurance program, offering additional subsidies to make coverage more affordable, and experimenting with enrollment and plan design and other initiatives to offer the best value and streamlined enrollment for Marylanders seeking coverage. President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act extends subsidies to make coverage in the Exchange even more affordable. As a result, Maryland’s uninsured rate dropped by more than 50 percent.
The ACA has been an important tool for Maryland’s efforts to promote more equitable health care coverage and access. According to the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange, the number of individuals who self-identified as Black on their enrollment applications increased by nearly 33% to 41,611. Enrollment by Hispanic residents grew by nearly 30% to 28,701. It grew even more among Black young adults 18-34, up 46% in one year, and Hispanic young adults 18-34, up 50% in one year. Those populations have historically and disproportionately lacked health insurance, but because of the ACA, are gaining access to quality, affordable health care.
The Maryland General Assembly will soon pass the Access to Care Act that would have the state apply for a waiver to allow any Marylander to purchase coverage in the Maryland Health Connection. This measure could further reduce the state’s uninsured rate, reduce disparities in coverage and advance health equity.
The Maryland Health Care for All Coalition will celebrate this milestone with the Maryland Health Connection’s Michele Eberle who will speak at Money Power Day on Saturday March 23, 2024 to celebrate this milestone and raise awareness about free and low-cost coverage options available to uninsured Marylanders. Uninsured Marylanders can check the Easy Enrollment box on state income taxes to initiate enrollment into free and low cost health care coverage.
“The Affordable Care Act has been enormously successful across the nation and in Maryland, driving down the number of people without health insurance dramatically and strengthening our system so more people are receiving the high-quality care they need to lead healthy lives,” said MCHI President Vincent DeMarco. “As we mark the 14th anniversary of the ACA, we are grateful for the leadership of the Moore Miller Administration and the Maryland General Assembly to build on the ACA to make coverage even more equitable, accessible and affordable. We remain committed to working in partnership to ultimately expand health coverage to thousands of additional Marylanders who are eligible for free or low-cost health coverage but not now enrolled.”
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With financing finally secured by Gov. Wes Moore in 2023, the board, under the able leadership of Chair Van Mitchell, has worked tirelessly to establish upper payment limits to make certain expensive drugs more affordable for state and local governments. This will be a huge step forward and will help bring down drug costs for governments, saving taxpayer dollars.
The next step is for the General Assembly to expand the board’s authority to authorize it to help all Marylanders afford high-cost drugs. Legislation to do that was introduced in the General Assembly this year, but legislators opted to tackle that issue in 2025, after the board acts on the upper payment limits for government agencies.
Expanding the board’s authority is highly popular with the public. Polling conducted last fall by respected pollster OpinionWorks found that more than 4 out of 5 voters (83%) favor having a Prescription Drug Affordability Board with the power to make high-cost drugs more affordable. And 80% of Marylanders favor expanding the authority of the Board.
Our organization has built a large, statewide coalition of over 450 faith, business, labor, consumer and health organizations, as well as many individuals, that are passionate about supporting the Board’s efforts to make high cost drugs more affordable for all Marylanders.
With that kind of public support, our legislative champions are committed to continuing the work of the Board, and we are confident the General Assembly will act in 2025 to expand the board’s authority. We know that the big drug corporations will oppose this effort and try to argue that they need drug costs to be so high so they can pay for drug research.
A new report issued by Public Citizen and Protect our Care, however, shows that the 10 drug corporations whose drugs are being identified for possible negotiation with Medicare under the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022 spent over $22 million more on advertising and high corporate salaries and other profit-taking than on research. Plainly, we can make high cost drugs more affordable for Marylanders without preventing the drug corporations from doing the research they need to do.”
Read the full article at Daily Record.com
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“What the mayor is doing is saying we got to have some of that money back because we’ve been gouged and the people of Baltimore City need this redress,” said Vincent DeMarco, president of Maryland Healthcare for All!.
“Eli Lilly and these other drug corporations have been gouging local governments, state governments, insurers and average Americans for so long. The price of a vial of insulin went from 20 bucks to 300 bucks from 1999 to 2016. And in that time, it didn’t cost them any more to make it. They were just gouging us for profits and high salaries of their executives.”
Read the full article at WYPR.org
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“The goal is to overcome systemic and structural racial and ethnic health inequities by improving resources across clinical and population health needs through the additional funding provided by the AHEAD program, while also including community input on common health and access concerns.”
Read the full article at Maryland Matters.org
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Prescription drug affordability (Senate Bill 388 and House Bill 340): Expanding the nascent board’s authority was a top priority for health care advocates. If passed, it would have allowed the five-member board to use upper payment limits to make high-cost medications more affordable, not just those who work for state and local governments (which is the case under current law). Advocates and legislators said they would push for the change again next year, after the board sets upper payment limits for the first time by Jan. 1, 2025.
Read the full article at BaltimoreSun.com
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“The General Assembly will wait until 2025 to consider this legislation, which gives the Board time to finalize action on upper payment limits for drugs purchased by state and local governments,” said Sen. Dawn Gile (D-Anne Arundel), sponsor of the Senate bill, said in a written statement.
“There is widespread agreement in the General Assembly that we need to help bring down the costs of expensive prescription drugs. Waiting until next year is the right decision and gives the Board time to fulfill its existing mandate,” she said.
Vincent DeMarco, president of Maryland Health Care for All, says that the organization looks forward to working with the legislature next year on the issue.
“Although we are disappointed that the General Assembly did not expand the Board’s authority this year, after the Board makes high cost drugs more affordable for state and local governments in the next few months, we will work hard to ensure that the Maryland General Assembly will in 2025 expand the Board’s authority to allow it to make high cost drugs more affordable for all Marylanders,” he said.
Read the full article at MarylandMatters.org
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Advocates say the setback comes- as the board would have already been setting those prices if a veto from the previous administration did not push back their timing.
“Originally they were supposed to do that by January 1, 2023, after which we were expecting the General Assembly to expand their authority to make high-cost drugs more affordable for everybody, Unfortunately, former Governor Larry Hogan vetoed a bill that was necessary to fund the board, and by the time the legislature overrode that veto, it delayed a lot of what the board could do,” said MDHCFA Director Vinny DeMarco.
Read the full article at WMDT.com
]]>Legislature Making Major Progress Toward Reducing Immigration Barriers to Purchasing Health Coverage on State Based Exchange
The Maryland House of Delegates and Senate have passed the Access to Care Act (HB 728/SB 705) sponsored by Senator Antonio Hayes and Delegate Bonnie Cullison. The bills, supported by the Maryland Health Care for All! Coalition, will help more Marylanders to purchase health coverage from the state health benefit exchange, regardless of immigration status. The legislation will have no cost to the state, and is predicted to reduce uncompensated hospital care and improve emergency room wait times. Past expansions of access to health coverage reduced uncompensated care by an estimated $460 million according to a recent report, helping to stabilize health insurance premiums for all Marylanders. Each bill has passed one chamber, and the coalition is hopeful the measure will soon win final approval by the Assembly.
“The General Assembly, thanks to the great leadership of lead sponsors Delegate Bonnie Cullison and Senator Antonio Hayes, is making great progress this year to help us reach our goal of ensuring that no Marylander has to go without health coverage,” said Vincent DeMarco, President of the Maryland Health Care for All! Coalition. “We have made major strides in the past several years, and 2024 is shaping up to be another great year for strengthening our health insurance system. This measure will help more Marylanders have peace of mind through the ability to purchase health coverage from Maryland Health Connection. This will have no cost to the state and as we get more and more of our residents covered, we all benefit as we reduce uncompensated hospital care for which we all pay with higher premiums.”
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“Part of the money would go to help reduce health disparities and climate disparities, which have been aggravated by climate change. People don’t have the health care they need and they are hurt more because of aggressive climate change,” said Vinny DeMarco of Maryland Healthcare for all who testified in support of the bill Tuesday.
View the full article at wmdt.com.
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