Officials react to Supreme Court decision on health care

Flanked by some of Maryland’s key healthcare reform advocates, Brown said he and Governor Martian O’Malley have been pushing for health care reform in Maryland since 2007.  He says the ruling now takes their efforts to the next level.

Brown said: “So while there’s debate around the Affordable Care Act, there’s very little debate around affordable health care and that’s what Marylander’s want, and today’s decision eliminates that cloud as to whether or not more and more Marylanders will have access to affordable health coverage.”

But health care advocates say despite this major victory — there’s still a lot of work to be done.

Vincent DeMarco, of the Health Care for All Coalition, said, “Because we have to fully implement this law.  This law gives a lot of discretion to states and we have an administration that’s working to fully implement but they need our coalition to work with them to make it happen and we’re going to be right there doing it.”

State Health Officials say they’re already moving forward to implement the health care act.  One example is working on a new IT System to help Marylanders find out if they’re eligible for MediCaid and other plans available to them.”