Amid rising health care costs, Maryland officials to boost ‘Easy Enrollment’

WASHINGTON — With Maryland residents facing increased health insurance costs and many outright cancelling their coverage, state officials and health advocates hope that promoting an existing program will help ease the burden. Maryland officials and health care advocates announced on Monday a $100,000 media advocacy campaign for the state’s Easy Enrollment health insurance program, betting that increased awareness will lead to broader coverage.

“You are lucky to be in Maryland,” Vincent DeMarco, president of Maryland Health Care for All, said during the announcement. “Maryland has done everything we can to protect Marylanders from attacks coming from the federal government.”

The campaign will feature billboards in Baltimore City, as well as social media and radio ads. Each will urge residents to “check the box at tax time,” according to DeMarco. The University of Maryland, the Horizon Foundation, LifeBridge Health, and the Maryland Hospital Association are among the sponsors supporting the campaign.

About 190,000 Maryland residents benefited from the Affordable Care Act premium tax credits. Roughly 30,000 residents were predicted to lose health coverage due to the elimination of the credits, which expired on Jan. 1. Higher prices affect whether some Marylanders are covered. So far, roughly 23,000 people have terminated their coverage, as a result, Michele Eberle, executive director of the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange, said during the announcement.

Some of the terminations of coverage for immigrants who were deemed “no longer lawfully present,” Eberle added, as well as some between the ages of 55 and 64 who are either dropping their coverage or choosing a cheaper plan.

Instituted in 2019 under Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, the Easy Enrollment program allows Maryland residents to check a box on their state income tax forms to hear about their eligibility for insurance. Though the program is in its sixth year, officials said many Marylanders remain unaware of it.

The bipartisan program has seen about 160,000 Marylanders learn about health care options. Over 19,000 of those have enrolled in a health care plan.

‘Forced to make impossible choices’

DeMarco was joined at the announcement by U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, and Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman, among other officials and health advocates.

Van Hollen said he hoped that Congress could pass an extension that would revive the lapsed credits. A bipartisan group of senators continued negotiations on the credits over the Christmas break. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, told PunchBowl News that he was open to a bipartisan deal to revive the credits if it included reforms, such as income caps.

“It’s important that we all remember that this is not abstract policy,” Lierman said, adding that people are being “forced to make impossible choices: health insurance, or food? Health insurance, or child care?”

Eastern Shore Rep. Andy Harris, and many other Republicans, opposed an extension, citing the burden the subsidies placed on taxpayers.

“These temporary emergency subsidies were never meant to become a permanent, deficit-financed entitlement that conceals — rather than fixes — the drivers of high premiums,” Harris told The Sun before the credits expired. “As a physician, I believe reforms should prioritize affordability and access — not funnel billions of taxpayer dollars to insurance companies.”

Health care enrollment in the state has already surpassed last year’s total, with over 249,000 signed up, according to Eberle. Open enrollment is available until Jan. 15. More than 36,000 of the enrollees are new to the exchange.

The number of uninsured people in Maryland dropped from 13% to 6% last year, State Del. Bonnie Cullison, a Montgomery County Democrat, said during the announcement.

“In these times, we can’t depend on the federal government to support the health and well-being of Marylanders,” Cullison said. “The state has to take on new responsibilities.”

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