Advocates for medical change in Maryland get endorsed by Wicomico Democratic Club

By Deborah Gates
Staff Writer

SALISBURY -- Advocates for health care reform in Maryland picked up an endorsement from the Wicomico Democratic Club while on the Lower Shore this week to win support for a proposal that would impose cigarette and business payroll taxes to finance expanded affordable health insurance coverage for state citizens.

A $1 per pack tax increase a year ago raised an additional $144 million to cover health care costs for close to 50,000 more uninsured Maryland residents. Now, Health Care for All -- a health reform advocacy group -- wants the per-pack cigarette tax increased again, this time by 75 cents -- a source for an additional $60 million to fund coverage for more uninsured Maryland residents, including 100,000 or more with children, said Vincent DeMarco, president of Maryland Citizens' Health Initiative, a division of Health Care for All. A 2 percent employer payroll tax on wages under a FICA cap would, over five years, contribute $13.2 billion toward state health care coverage, DeMarco said.

The proposed state plan would move forward regardless of the outcome of controversial national health care reform bills steeped in debate in Washington, DeMarco also said. State measures would either fill gaps in an approved federal plan, or worse, kick in with low-cost, quality insurance coverage if the federal bill failed, he said.

The Health Care for All plan, among other things, would:

Create an insurance pool by merging individual and small-group markets and provide premium subsidies for low-income residents.
Provide catastrophic reinsurance benefits that would cover 75 percent of health costs over $35,000 for those currently uninsured and those with private insurance.
"We have to make health care affordable to everyone, especially to small businesses and individuals," DeMarco told an audience of about 20 people at a gathering this week of the county Democratic Club. “A federal bill will help a lot of people, but not all. We want to finish the job. Whatever they do at the federal level, there will be measures (also) at the state level.”

Attending the meeting was Delegate Norman Conway, D-38B-Wicomico; Wicomico County Executive Richard Pollitt; County Council member David MacLeod and Salisbury Mayor Jim Ireton.

Ireton, citing the hundreds of civil rights, labor, religious and business groups endorsing the Health Care for All plan, called the Wicomico Democratic party’s endorsement, “a natural step.”