Health Plan

Despite a slower-than-expected start, Howard County's attempt to provide universal medical care to its residents offers some important lessons for those who would remake the nation's health care system on a much broader scale. At least one member of the County Council is questioning whether to allocate a planned $500,000 to the Healthy Howard initiative in light of its so-far lackluster enrollment - just 200 of the county's 20,000 uninsured have signed up so far. But the enrollment doesn't tell the whole story.

High-ranking Maryland lawmakers and CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, the region's largest insurer, outlined yesterday a $1.6 billion proposal for near-universal health care coverage that would require state residents to have insurance and employers to provide it. The legislation is the latest attempt to help a large segment of Marylanders who don't have health insurance - more than 760,000, or 14 percent of the population - which puts their personal and...

With the economy in trouble, 50-year old Elizabeth McCarthy is unemployed, but she and her husband Jay, 57, aren't worried about health care. The Ellicott City couple were among the first of more than 1,100 Howard County residents who flocked to apply for the county's new health access plan for the uninsured when it launched last month. "It takes an awful lot of stress off you," said Jay, a self-employed furniture finisher. Elizabeth added, "We've gone without when we should have had care."

How workable are the presidential candidates' health reform plans? The strategies of Sen. John McCain, a Republican, and Sen. Barack Obama, a Democrat, are different in their approaches to solving problems and their potential effects on voters. To choose wisely, you have to do some homework. To help, here are summaries of their proposals, health care statistics, and online resources that provide more information and analyze how well those proposals might work. Barack Obama would ... * Require employers (some small businesses would be exempt or subsidized)

If you don't have health insurance and you need to be treated in an emergency room, things can quickly go from bad to worse. Even if your illness isn't life-threatening and your hospital stay is relatively short, you can still end up with a bill you won't be able to pay. But if you don't pay it, collection agencies start dunning you and your credit rating takes a nose-dive. Howard County officials thought there had to be a better way for the more than 20,000 uninsured residents. What they needed was a program aimed at keeping people healthy, one that gave them access to doctors, hospital care and prescription drugs as well as an alternative to rushing to the emergency room for routine, preventable illnesses.

Howard County's innovative health access plan for uninsured residents will also have a dental component, county officials announced yesterday. Residents who enroll in the Healthy Howard program, due to begin Oct. 1, will be eligible for discounts of 35 percent to 50 percent from 75 dentists and orthodontists who practice in the county and participate in the Aetna dental program, said Mike Bucci, marketing vice president for Aetna, who made the announcement in...

Greg Scandlen is among the country's leading advocates for "consumer-directed" insurance plans, in which there is a high deductible and patients pay for routine care from tax-sheltered health accounts. He's president and chief executive officer of Consumers for Health Care Choices, a Hagerstown-based nonprofit that advocates nationwide for free-market solutions to health system problems. President Bush and other supporters say such plans would turn patients into smarter consumers of health services and lead them to look aggressively for cost-effective treatments.

State health officials are hoping to team with Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot this spring for a statewide effort to identify more children who are eligible for federally funded health insurance. Under the plan, an outgrowth of Howard's County's pioneering health-access program, Franchot's office would search through state income-tax records to find families with incomes that qualify them for participation in the much-debated State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, and then send letters notifying them that the program is available.