Insurance Plan

Stabilizing Maryland's unemployment system is crucial to the state's economy and business community. The Maryland Chamber of Commerce appreciates the O'Malley administration's focus on this important issue. While the administration's proposal has some merit, the Maryland Chamber disagrees with The Sun's recent editorial ("Expanding benefits is worth the price," Dec. 21). Deferring more than $80 million in unemployment insurance tax increases and expanding benefits to access $126.8 million from the federal government sounds appealing.

Calling it the "death knell" for Maryland small business, Delegate Richard C. Matthews, R-Carroll, opposed the proposal submitted by a gubernatorial panel to make small businesses provide health insurance for their employees or pay a tax into a fund.The difference between this proposal and various "no-frills" health insurance proposals being considered by the General Assembly is that this proposal is mandatory and the others are optional, he said.The proposal, recommended by the Governor's Commission on Health Care Policy and Financing, "grabs small business by the throat and says buy insurance or pay a tax. Either way, you're going to pay," he said.

The agency that oversees the state's health plan for those uninsured because of preexisting conditions, paid a vendor nearly $367,000 for information technology services without proving that the contract was chosen through a competitive bidding process, a legislative audit has found. The audit also said The Maryland Health Insurance Plan did not perform routine reviews to make sure the insurer that manages the plan for the state, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, was complying with its contract.

Laid-off Sparrows Point workers and retirees from the steel mill should soon be able to sign up for health insurance through a plan set up in another steelmaking region. Mill owner RG Steel - which stopped benefits Aug. 31 - asked for court approval Thursday to allow the Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corporation Retiree Benefits Plan to accept workers and retirees from Sparrows Point and its other facilities. The United Steelworkers union agreed to expand eligibility in the plan, and RG Steel said it doesn't think court approval is necessary, though it asked for it just in case.

Women In Business host breakfast meeting on insurance planning "Success or Failure? Insurance Planning Can Make the Difference" is the topc for the Women In Business breakfast meeting Friday, Nov. 11, from 9:15 to 11:30 a.m. at Homewood Suites by Hilton, 8320 Benson Drive, in Columbia. Presenters are Stanette Robinson, who assists small businesses on establishing strategies leading to financial independence and stability, and Kathy Miller, founder of Apple Insurance Service, who educates clients about insurance plans and helps them make choices that will maximize their protection and save them money.

County officials are planning to offer county government and community college workers a health care package that will raise insurance rates for some. But it will also include a discount plan that keeps premiums at current levels for workers willing to choose a designated list of physicians.The tentative proposal by Blue Cross and Blue Shield is part of the pay and benefits package county officials are offering workers represented by six labor unions.As part of the plan, the premiums that county employees pay each month for health care, under Blue Cross' traditional family and individual health insurance package, will jump about 14 percent.

The federal program that offers health insurance to Marylanders with pre-existing conditions has made changes recently that will make some costs go up and others go down. The program was created under the federal health reform law and was intended as a bridge for those who could not buy commercial insurance until 2014 when new exchanges are slated to launch. The program could be terminated if the health care law is overturned by the Supreme Court. But for now, officials say the program operates at market rates and they must adjust premiums and benefits each year as other insurers do with their plans.

A life insurance company plans to kick off a nationwide hiring campaign with a job fair in Hanover next week. American General Life and Accident Insurance Co., which said it plans to hire at least 4,000 sales agents nationally over two years, will talk with local applicants Monday from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the Arundel Mills Mall food court parking lot. A spokeswoman said the firm wants to hire as many qualified workers in the Baltimore area...

Older whites are 3 1/2 times more likely than older blacks to receive potentially life-saving surgery to bypass a blocked coronary artery, according to a new study that offers striking evidence of a wide racial gap in access to medical care.The study, based on more than 86,000 coronary artery bypass graft surgeries performed under the Medicare program, found that the gap was widest in Southeastern states, where whites were more than six times as likely to have the operation as blacks. It also found that the procedure was five times more prevalent among white men than black men."

A reform debuting in Maryland this week and intended to make health insurance more affordable to hundreds of thousands of people who work in small businesses could have the opposite effect.Just days before it begins, only a handful of new benefits packages were on the market until last week, and businesses whose insurance policies run out July 1 found their choices severely limited. Prices for new policies are coming in higher than expected, and some of those who sell insurance worry that clients could drop coverage altogether.