Single payer on the march in Maryland [View All]

[eridani]

http://ifawebnews.com/2011/03/03/maryland-bill-to-create-single-payer-system-excludes-insurance-agents/


The Maryland General Assembly has scheduled a March 9 public hearing on a bill that would take a far more aggressive approach toward health reform in the state than passed at the federal level last year.

The bill, SB388, would create a single-payer system to administer all health insurance coverage in Maryland. The public hearing is planned before the Senate Finance Committee, beginning at 1 p.m. No action by the Maryland House of Representatives has been scheduled.

The 27-page bill makes no mention of insurance agents and brokers, and if approved would likely eliminate the need for them. The language of the bill doesn’t clearly explain how those services would be performed.

Eleven senators are sponsoring the bill, the Maryland Health Security Act of 2011, which would establish the Maryland Health System to provide health care services to all residents of the state under a system not dependent on employment. The program would be funded by the state and permit people to access any approved health care provider in the state.

If approved, according to the bill’s text, the program would serve as the state’s effort to meet the federal law’s requirements.

A grassroots group, Healthcare-Now! of Maryland, is pushing for the bill, arguing that the Canada-style approach to health care would eliminate the profit motive of insurers and lower overhead, according to the group’s website.

Under the provisions of the bill, a Health Policy Board would establish a comprehensive health package, including all medically necessary care, preventive care, integrated health services, mental health services, substance abuse treatment services, home- and community-based services, dental services, basic vision services, and prescription drugs and devices without any co-insurance, deductibles or co-payments.



http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/bs-ho-politics-kittleman-health-20110228,0,1029177.story

The idea of a single-payer health care system was lost in the debate over the much-amended national health care reformpassed by Congress last year, but three Howard Countydelegates are co-sponsors of legislation in this year's General Assembly that seeks to bring the idea to fruition in the Free State.

The concept involves having everyone in the state get health care through one insurance pool to which everyone pays premiums. It eliminates the variety of insurance companies that now offer coverage only to those insured through an employer or who can pay.

The Senate version (SB 388) of the Maryland Health Security Act is scheduled for a hearing at 1 p.m. Wednesday in theSenate Finance Committee in Annapolis, and backers are planning a free event to help boost support at 1 p.m. March 12 at the Central Library in Columbia.

Dels. Guy Guzzone, Frank Turner and Elizabeth Bobo, all Democrats, are all co-sponsors of the House bill (HB 1035), and Democratic Del. Shane Pendergrass said she supports a single-payer system in concept, though she is not a co-sponsor because the bill would come before her subcommittee. Sponsors of the three-hour library event are Healthcare-Now! Maryland and Physicians for a National Health Program.

Organizers of the single-payer campaign, Stephen Dunbar and Dr. Eric G. Naumburg, say the bill has little chance of passage this year, but they believe that things may change in the future.

"The health system, the way it's going, cannot survive long term," said Dunbar, 68, of Columbia. He's an entrepreneur with a 43-year old son who was recently laid off from his job. His son, he said, had three open-heart surgeries as a child and needs continuous medical care that he might not be able to afford without employer-provided health insurance.