Media Advisory

MEDIA ADVISORY
September 14, 2018

We Must Build on Our 2018 Successes to Protect Affordable Health Care in Maryland:

Statement of Stephanie Klapper, Deputy Director, Maryland Citizens’ Health Initiative

“We commend the Maryland General Assembly and Governor Hogan for creating a reinsurance program during the 2018 legislative session that has helped to keep insurance premiums from skyrocketing. As a result, the two carriers in the Exchange, CareFirst and Kaiser Permanente, have substantially reduced the premiums they plan to charge. We need to build on this success to stabilize premiums over the long term by passing two key pieces of legislation in 2019. Maryland must enact the Health Insurance Down Payment Plan and approve legislation to create a Prescription Drug Affordability Board. These two measures would help stabilize the insurance market, bring down premiums and make life-saving drugs more affordable for Marylanders.

“A Health Insurance Down Payment Plan would give consumers at tax time who did not have health coverage in the past year the choice between paying a penalty or instead using that money to purchase quality health coverage. This would bring more people into the individual market to help stabilize premiums and would replace the federal individual mandate which will no longer be enforced starting in 2020. A Prescription Drug Affordability Board would set rates that Marylanders pay for very high-cost drugs which play a big role in increasing health coverage premiums. We call on Maryland lawmakers to make these issues top priorities for the 2019 legislative session.”