Health Insurance

The federal government has awarded Maryland $36.5 million for its success at getting children enrolled in government subsidized health programs. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said Wednesday that Maryland was among 23 states that was awarded nearly $306 million in performance bonuses for enrolling children into Medicaid and the Children's Health Program. States qualify for bonuses by showing they have simplified the process of enrolling in the programs. They must also meeet goals of enrolling children living in the lowest income levels.

Your Thursday article concerning Social Security workers complaining about pay raises ("Facing the fiscal cliff," Dec. 6) shows how these employees feel entitled because they are federal employees. They fail to realize the private sector is also encountering pay freezes, increases in health insurance and layoffs. Private sector employees do not enjoy the lucrative benefits provided to federal employees. What they do is get a second job to send their kids to college. So stop the whining and get another job if you want more money.

I was reading about some American Federal of State, County and Municipal Employees getting retroactive raises back to July 1. How nice. By way of this letter, you're welcome. I say this because Gov. Martin O'Malley and AFSCME thought it would be more fair if non-union members were forced to pay union dues. I don't belong to any union, yet because of the Fair Share Act, $13.80 is deducted from my paycheck as union dues. The reasoning is that non-union members benefit regardless of membership.

Well, that pretty much settles it. My fellow Americans, I have heard and understood the loud and unequivocal message you sent with this year's election: Liberty is for losers. True, we have not been a free people in some time. It's been a long and bumpy road to serfdom - 100 years to be precise, starting in 1913, when government gathered for itself the power to levy a tax on income in direct opposition with the taxation power as the Founders envisioned it. The Founders, after all, understood a thing to two about the dangers of taxation, how necessary expenditures for the public good can all-too-easily become inevitable and bottomless troughs engorging an ever-expanding and ever-ravenous bureaucracy.

Since when are Social Security and Medicare considered "free stuff" ("Older, wealthier get plenty of 'free stuff,'" Nov. 14)? I paid into Social Security for 46 years before receiving a penny and I pay a Medicare premium monthly (when my Social Security benefit went up recently, my Medicare cost rose higher than the Social Security increase - I wonder why that happened?) in addition to my own health insurance. Columnist Thomas F. Schaller and others who write for The Sun can continue to hammer the right, but, as I continually ask, please be fair.

A federal bankruptcy judge approved RG Steel's $767,000 "retention" plan for 21 employees Tuesday over the sharp objections of the United Steelworkers. The payments, approved by Judge Kevin J. Carey in Wilmington, include stipends for health insurance and a bonus equal to three months' salary, if the workers remain through Dec. 31. RG Steel — which owned the Sparrows Point mill in Baltimore County before auctioning it to a redevelopment firm and liquidator this summer — said the move was necessary to wind down its estate.

About 400 retired Baltimore County Police Department employees could see their health insurance premiums reduced and past overpayments reimbursed, after the Maryland Court of Appeals ruled Monday in favor of a grievance brought by the police union. The Baltimore County Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 4, filed the grievance after county officials approved changes in 2007 to the way the county subsidized health insurance for a group of police retirees. Under an agreement, Police Department employees who retired between Feb.1, 1992, and June 30, 2007, were required to pay 15 percent of health insurance premiums while the county would pay 85 percent, and the union believed that the plan was fixed until the retirees became eligible for Medicare.

Most of us likely take paid sick leave for granted. It accumulates over time, and we dip into the account when there's an injury or illness that prevents us from going to work, whether for a day or, as in the case of a serious malady, for much longer. Workers benefit most directly, but it also allows employers to attract the best and brightest workers and spares their co-workers and customers from coming into contact with a potentially contagious disease. But what so many have come to expect as a minimum standard of full-time employment, many others have never experienced first-hand.

The same group that successfully pushed to double the state's cigarette tax in 2007 wants the General Assembly to add another dollar per pack next session. Health Care For All, led by Annapolis stalwart Vinnie DeMarco, kicked off his push at a news conference in Annapolis today. "It works. It is good politics and good policy," DeMarco said. "We need the money for health care" The change would increase the state's cigarette tax from $2 per pack to $3, and bring the average price to $7.29.  It would mean Maryland would have the 6th highest cigarette tax in the country, according to DeMarco.

The outcome of last week's presidential election has vindicated the wisdom of Maryland's early decision to begin setting up a state health exchange where consumers can shop for affordable health insurance coverage. President Barack Obama's victory virtually assures that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act he signed in 2010 will go into effect as planned in 2014. Having survived constitutional challenges in the Supreme Court earlier this year and an election-year campaign pledge by GOP challenger Mitt Romney to dismantle the law if elected, states across the country must now start setting up similar exchanges or face having the federal government do it for them.