Medicare – Sandy Rosenberg

“Call your personal physician.”

That’s what we should tell our constituents.

We were told that a briefing yesterday on the legislation giving Governor Hogan emergency power to cope with the coronavirus pandemic.

“What about the people who don’t have a personal physician?” I asked.

Under the managed care program for Medicaid, people do have a doctor, the witness replied.

The heart of Maryland’s system for reimbursement for medical care is that everyone pays the same rate for hospital care.

If you have private insurance or if you’re on Medicare on Medicaid, you pay the same rate. Those payments help cover the costs for uninsured patients.

Much of the legislation in my committee, Health and Government Operations, deals with which health care providers, in addition to doctors and dentists, will be considered qualified to provide care.

And be compensated for doing so.

I have tried to address providing preventive care for those who do not normally receive it.

A crisis shines a spotlight on all of those issues.

A big number and two words.

If the Congress reduces the federal portion of the cost of the expansion of Medicaid coverage under Obamacare, the cost to Maryland would be $1.27 billion.

For more than 30 years, Maryland’s all-payer system has meant that all patients pay the same rate for hospital care, whether they have private insurance or are on Medicare or Medicaid. If a person doesn’t have health coverage, the rates increase for those with insurance to cover that uncompensated cost of care.

If the federal government were to end its contract with us for this all-payer system, $2.3 billion in annual federal payments to Maryland hospitals would be jeopardized.

That’s $3.57 billion. Per year.

The need to provide for that health care will not disappear. Nor will the need to compensate health care providers.

The two words: special session.

No one expects the Congress to “repeal and replace” Obamacare before we adjourn in April.

A gap in funding of this magnitude – and its effect on the provision of health care, would need to be addressed immediately.

And in a bipartisan manner.