Health Care

In order to begin to turn around the alarming healthcare trend of rising costs and a rising number of uninsured Marylanders every year, I ask that you pass the Maryland Healthcare Act. Among other things the act will:

• Create a Health Insurance Exchange to help small businesses find more affordable coverage for their employees – on a pre-tax basis.

• It will require insurance companies to allow younger adults up to age 25 to be covered under their parents' policies.

• And it will also provide healthcare coverage to more children in our state.

I also ask for your support for several other initiatives in this year's proposed budget:

• $25 million for Stem Cell research – a 66% increase over last year's appropriation.

• The restoration of Medicaid healthcare benefits to legal immigrant families, including 3,000 children.

• And over $100 million to strengthen our provider systems by increasing reimbursement rates for doctors participating in our State's Medicaid Program.

When physicians and other providers do not receive adequate compensation for the services they provide, it threatens the quality and effectiveness of our healthcare system. Therefore, as part of our legislative agenda, I ask for your support of the task force on Health Care Access and Physician Reimbursement.

I also ask for your support to create a Life Science Advisory Board – as a potential precursor to a true Life Sciences Authority – so that we can more effectively grow an industry that already employs 57,000 people in and around places like NIH, Johns Hopkins, the University of Maryland and the Food and Drug Administration, to name just a few.

And finally on healthcare, I ask for your support of a Universal Vaccine Purchasing Task Force, so we can better understand how to protect Marylanders against the flu and other foreseeable diseases.

Because healthcare is a battle of a thousand partial victories, I look forward to working with Chairman Hammen, Chairman Middleton and others in the weeks ahead, as we roll up our sleeves to craft ways to improve healthcare coverage and our healthcare outcomes.