April 21, 2022
Baltimore Sun Op-Ed
Vincent DeMarco
At a recent White House event, President Joe Biden joined his predecessor, Barack Obama, to commemorate the 12th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act ’s passage. So much has changed for the better thanks to the ACA: The country’s uninsured rate has dropped dramatically (by half in Maryland), people no longer struggle to get coverage due to preexisting medical conditions, and millions of Americans receive help paying their insurance premiums. But there’s still work to be done to get everybody covered and to ensure they have access to the care they need.
While Maryland has led the way in fully implementing and building on the ACA — insuring an additional 400,000 people in recent years and being the first state in the nation to offer an Easy Enrollment program that allows people to sign up for health care at tax time — 6% of the state’s population remains without coverage, meaning they may go without care. When they do seek care, they tend to go to the hospital emergency room, the most expensive health care setting, which drives up costs for everyone.
Our organization, the Maryland Health Care for All! Coalition, will be reaching out across the state to build support for a three-pronged health care agenda we believe is urgently needed.
Read the full op-ed on the Baltimore Sun’s website.
Last modified: May 3, 2022
