Kerr campaigning to make health insurance, government more accessible [The Frederick News-Post, Md.]

Sep. 6—Editor's note: The Frederick News-Post is profiling candidates in Frederick County's state legislative races and for Maryland's 6th Congressional District in the Nov. 8 general election. For profiles of candidates for county offices and other election coverage, go to fredericknewspost.com/news/continuing_coverage/election_coverage.

Del. Ken Kerr is running for his second term on the Maryland House of Delegates to continue pushing to make health insurance more accessible, teaching more affordable, and government services more understandable.

Kerr, previously a member of the Frederick County Board of Education, was elected to serve District 3B in 2018. He won his primary race this year with 5,628, more than any of his six Democratic challengers.

He is competing for one of the three open seats in legislative District 3 against Democrats Kris Fair and Karen Simpson and Republicans Kathy Diener and Justin Wages.

During Kerr's first term in the State House, he served on the Health and Government Operations Committee. Among the bills he sponsored over the past four years, he mentioned one that created a pilot program for health insurance subsidies as legislation he is proud to have supported.

Marylanders ages 19 to 34 make up the largest portion of people who do not have health insurance in the state, Kerr said. The bill he sponsored provides health insurance subsidies to people of this age group who are employed and make up to $51,000.

In doing so, the program helps get more young people on health insurance and includes them in the risk pool, which brings down everyone's insurance premiums, Kerr said.

In the program's first year, 9,000 people participated, Kerr said. This is the program's second year.

"One of the things I look forward to doing in the coming session is to remove what's called the 'sunset provision,' and make the law permanent," he said. "It's proven itself to be effective."

If re-elected, Kerr also plans to put forward a bill that would create a teacher apprenticeship program in Maryland. He proposed legislation in 2020 that would have required the governor to fund such a program in Frederick County, but the bill did not move forward.

A teacher apprenticeship program would give people studying to become educators the chance to garner paid experience in a classroom before they graduate. Kerr hopes such a program would reduce turnover among teachers and make acquiring a degree more affordable.

He hopes to work with Sen. Jim Rosapepe, a Democrat who represents Prince George's County, to fund an apprentice program with available money from the American Rescue Plan Act.

Kerr would also be interested in creating a similar program for people studying to enter the health care field.

"I don't think that someone who wants to go into public service, whether it'd be health care or teaching," he said, "should get into debt to get the training that they need in order to do the job."

Two bills he is most proud of sponsoring are ones that evolved from problems constituents brought to him. Both took years of work before they passed.

One, Brynleigh's Act, required educators to complete training on how to recognize seizures and respond to them.

The other changed the circumstances under which property held by a banking or financial organization may be considered abandoned.

If re-elected, Kerr said, he looks forward to continuing to work with people in Frederick to adopt legislation that would help them and their families.

"We're only in Annapolis for 90 days," he said. "The rest of the year, we're just helping constituents — solving their problems for them, getting them the assistance they need, helping them navigate state bureaucracy. And that's probably the most rewarding part of the job."

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