Health Coverage

I would like Gov.Martin O'Malleyto explain why citizens who no longer have pension plans or retiree medical and prescription benefits through their employers are forced to continue to pay for state employee pensions and retiree health coverage. We should be able to use the tax dollars currently directed toward these generous state employee benefit programs to save for our own retirement just as state employees should be saving for their own retirement. Marilyn Lewis

Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s recent column on health care shows a talent for bending facts to fit ideology ("A blow to employer-based coverage," April 1). He quotes a 2011 analysis by McKinsey & Company that the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) would decrease the number of employers who offer health insurance. He failed to mention that this report was one outlier among a number of other economic reports done by independent think tanks (Rand, Urban), the Congressional Budget Office and a health benefits firm (Mercer)

If you're considering taking a job with a small employer, take a hard look at the benefits: Health insurance might not be included. A March study from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that the number of employers offering coverage has declined, particularly among small businesses. Last year, 60 percent of employers with between three and 199 workers provided insurance, down from 68 percent five years earlier. It's not that small businesses are stingy. But because they have fewer employees to contribute premiums, the insurer takes on more risk, which drives up the cost for the business or workers (or both)

Maryland continued its aggressive implementation of health care change Thursday despite uncertainty surrounding the issue nationally, as the General Assembly passed legislation to create open markets where people will buy insurance. The law to set up the health benefit exchanges was sent to Gov. Martin O'Malley, who supports the legislation. Passage of the bills in the House and Senate comes as the U.S. Supreme Court is deciding whether it is constitutional to require everyone to have insurance, a key component of President Barack Obama's overhaul of the health system.

WASHINGTON -- At least 34 million Americans -- and probably many more -- who work for companies with self-insured health plans could be deprived of their coverage for costly illnesses like AIDS or cancer, health care specialists warned yesterday.They were speaking in light of the Supreme Court's decision Monday to let stand a federal appeals court ruling that allows companies with self-funding health care schemes to slash coverage for expensive treatments after their workers develop catastrophic illnesses.

WASHINGTON -- Ann Fowler recently returned to her job as a receptionist at a Baltimore hair salon because it pays better than the bank job she took last year -- even though she now has no health insurance.But with a 15-month-old son, she and her husband are beginning to struggle. The child "was sick less than two weeks ago, and I had to put out $100 just in prescriptions," Ms. Fowler said."You have to cut out a lot of things. If I get sick, I don't go to the doctor because I can't afford it," she explainedA new study shows the Fowlers are members of a rapidly expanding club: the working uninsured.

House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. unveiled yesterday the outlines of a reform package to bring health insurance to the more than 500,000 Marylanders who don't have coverage. The package calls for expanding income limits for the Medicaid program for the poor, currently about $4,000 a year for an individual, to $13,200; subsidizing coverage on a sliding scale for those making between $13,200 and $22,150; regulating and standardizing individual insurance to make buying policies easier for those who can afford them; and dangling tax incentives to employers for offering affordable health coverage to their workers.

The state of Maryland has received a $28.3 million performance bonus for its efforts in enrolling children in federal health programs. The money was given to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for fiscal year 2011. The state has expanded coverage to more than 300,000 people since 2007 and almost half were children. Bonuses were given to states with at least five Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program features that promoted the enrollment and retention of health coverage for children.

Despite being among America's wealthiest states, Maryland posted one of the highest increases of uninsured people last year.Nearly 160,000 Marylanders joined the rolls of those without health insurance in 1998, bringing the number of uninsured residents to 837,000, or one-sixth of the population. Statistics show more than half of these people work. A quarter of them are children.Decrying these numbers, a coalition of more than 30 groups launched a grass-roots, statewide campaign yesterday to fix the problem.

Maryland continued its aggressive implementation of health care change Thursday despite uncertainty surrounding the issue nationally, as the General Assembly passed legislation to create open markets where people will buy insurance. The law to set up the health benefit exchanges was sent to Gov. Martin O'Malley, who supports the legislation. Passage of the bills in the House and Senate comes as the U.S. Supreme Court is deciding whether it is constitutional to require everyone to have insurance, a key component of President Barack Obama's overhaul of the health system.

I would like Gov.Martin O'Malleyto explain why citizens who no longer have pension plans or retiree medical and prescription benefits through their employers are forced to continue to pay for state employee pensions and retiree health coverage. We should be able to use the tax dollars currently directed toward these generous state employee benefit programs to save for our own retirement just as state employees should be saving for their own retirement. Marilyn Lewis

The state of Maryland has received a $28.3 million performance bonus for its efforts in enrolling children in federal health programs. The money was given to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for fiscal year 2011. The state has expanded coverage to more than 300,000 people since 2007 and almost half were children. Bonuses were given to states with at least five Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program features that promoted the enrollment and retention of health coverage for children.

Two Baltimore County Police officers who were denied health benefits for their same-sex spouses have won their cases before an arbitrator, the first disputes of this kind to be decided in the department. Officers Margaret Selby and Juanika Ballard got the word on Tuesday that an independent arbitrator ruled in their favor, meaning the county must provide health benefits to the women whom they each married out of state in the summer of 2009. In a 10-page opinion, the arbitrator ruled that the county violated the terms of the union contract by denying the benefits in August 2010.

The term "shared sacrifice" is much in vogue in today's challenging economy, and elected officials would be wise to pay heed. When the Average Joe has seen his pension and wages frozen and other benefits reduced, the last thing he wants to read in his morning paper is that government workers are not facing the same kinds of financial hardships. But what happens when workers in one branch of local government are asked to make greater sacrifice than those in another? That's a situation likely to breed its own brand of resentment and political infighting, and it gets a great deal more complicated when teachers, principals and other school employees are involved.

Former Baltimore Health Commissioner Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein is returning to Maryland after nearly two years in the Obama administration to head the state health department, a role that will include carrying out the president's health care overhaul in Maryland. Gov. Martin O'Malley said Tuesday that he was "ecstatic" and "delighted" by Sharfstein's decision to leave his "very important national position" as the principal deputy commissioner at the Food and Drug Administration, the No. 2 position in the federal agency.

Like hungry predators contemplating a particularly appetizing prey, House Republicans arrive in Washington this week with drool practically dripping from their chins. For most, the question is not whether they will try to repeal federal health care reform once Congress convenes Wednesday but how quickly, savagely and completely they can thwart President Barack Obama's signature program. But if they can wrest themselves from public denunciations of socialism, Medicaid recipients and "death panels" — or from partisan strategy sessions where the merits of repeal versus investigative attack hearings are no doubt being explored exhaustively — they may want to consider their biggest obstacle: the American people.

The Anne Arundel County Council got its first look yesterday at proposed changes in employee health benefits that should save taxpayers $4 million a year, according to a county budget analyst.Thomas W. Mullinex said that under the revamped health coverage, the traditional and more expensive Blue Cross/Blue Shield plan, in which employees could choose any doctor, will be eliminated.In its place, employees may select among three options: an HMO or one of two doctor networks.Employees will be able to choose among three health maintenance organizations.

I think about all the years I worked and paid for health care and did not use it because I was young and healthy. Now I am older in need of care, and I can't afford it and can't get it because of pre-existing conditions. What happened to all that money people put into the system and didn't use because they were healthy and strong? I need help in order to stay alive. I need health insurance that works for me to provide me with the best possible care. I like so many others want to live and work without the fear of getting sick with no health coverage.

I cannot believe the diatribes and articles on U.S. Rep.-elect Andy Harris asking when his health coverage starts. This is a common question and concern of working, insured Americans. We ask, maybe even suggest the company change policy, then we go buy an interim policy so we are covered for the period in question. It is a common sense question and of concern of most of us, albeit not with progressives who can't be bothered by details or facts. Why not the same coverage on the following: •The president's failed trip to Asia where many nations were disappointed with his failed economic policies; •The president's abject failure to live up to a Nobel Peace Prize, which he should have rejected in the first place and told the Norwegians to give him after he proved himself; •Allowing the Congress to not pass a 2011 budget.

Andy Harris probably learned a lesson from the flap caused by his questions about the health care benefits he'll enjoy as a congressman in a supposedly confidential briefing — but likely not the right one. Mr. Harris, a Republican and a physician who was elected this month to represent Maryland's 1st District, will surely chalk this one up as a painful object lesson in the "gotcha" culture of Washington, where reporters were eager to pounce on...