Health Insurance

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.

Letter writer Ilene O'Connell says the re-election of Barack Obama as president has made her "ashamed of my country" ("Ashamed of the country that re-elected Obama," Nov. 8). She is entitled to her opinion but not to create her own facts to support it. The fact is that the president - any president - has very little control over the price of gasoline. That's in the hands of the oil-rich nations and the big oil companies, who of course adjust the availability of supplies to make the most money.

Reporter Yvonne Wenger 's article on the troubling reality of applying for federal disability benefits reflects what we see daily at Health Care for the Homeless in Baltimore City ("After a disability, long waits for federal benefits," Oct. 28). As Ms. Wenger noted, around 31 percent of all initial applications for benefits are denied. But for individuals who are homeless, and who often have much higher rates of mental illness, the acceptance rate is even lower. Many of these individuals are uninsured and thus unable to access vital treatment and services.

Supporters of health care reform are breathing a sigh of relief after the re-election of President Barack Obama. Challenger Mitt Romney had vowed to repeal the law if elected, but now it is in safer territory. The provision, which requires most people to buy health insurance, was a key initiative of Obama's first term. While there likely won't be a complete overhaul of health reform, funding of the provision could come up in Congress as the country looks to reduce its massive deficit.

I must live in a different country than Sen. Jim Rosapepe ("U.S. stronger, safer under President Obama," Oct. 27). Unfortunately, my country has a terrible economy with 23 million people out of work. In four years, the price of gasoline has doubled, the average family has seen a yearly income loss of $4,400, the U.S. debt has increased by four trillion dollars, the price of everything at the grocery store has increased dramatically, and the cost of my health insurance is increasing. The Middle East is in turmoil.

On the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's dramatic announcement about the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba, the two presidential candidates met for a debate last Monday only 250 miles away in Boca Raton, Fla. Moderator Bob Schieffer began the night by reminding the nearly 60 million viewers that those 13 days in late 1962 were "perhaps the closest we've ever come to nuclear war. And it is a sobering reminder that every president faces...

The United Steelworkers called a request by RG Steel to pay 21 of its remaining employees $767,000 in bonuses and health-insurance stipends "an inappropriate, unfair and outrageous effort. " The complaint, sent to members of the union Friday, came a day after the former steelmaker asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., for approval of the plan. RG Steel owned several steel mills, including Sparrows Point in Baltimore County, before auctioning off its property this summer for pennies on the dollar.