Making Health Care Work

Now the fight for health care reform is in Annapolis, and so are the health care industry’s lobbyists.

At stake is how we set up a new insurance marketplace in Maryland — the single biggest tool we have to clean up health care. The new state insurance exchange will allow small businesses, those of us who buy health care on our own, and the uninsured to shop for cheaper health care plans and find some relief from increasingly brutal premiums. 

Done right, the exchange will save billions and level the balance of power between consumers and the health care industry — driving the industry to cut waste and prioritize high-quality care.

The health care industry knows this and has spent millions to influence decisions on health care, so they know how high the stakes are.

In order to help us fight back against the kind of price jumps and trap-door coverage we’ve all been suffering from, Maryland PIRG is pushing to see that the exchange:

1) Negotiates for better plans. By demanding better care for less cost, the exchange can use the collective power of hundreds of thousands of Marylanders to finally demand that the industry do better.

2) Have high standards, so that bad plans aren’t an option.

3) Be open to as many Marylanders as possible. Limits that shut some individuals and businesses out of the exchange would reduce its ability to lower costs — and will be a key tactic that industry lobbyists use to weaken it.

4) Be accountable to the public.