State lawmakers, county executives and health care advocacy groups say they want to extend a “highly successful” pilot program that lowers health insurance premiums for young Marylanders, which is currently set to expire next year.
“As the only physician in the Senate, I recognize the importance of providing health insurance coverage to as many people as possible,” Sen. Clarence Lamb (R-Howard, Anne Arundel) said Tuesday. “This not only helps the patients we see, but it also helps our community as a whole.”
Lamb will be the lead Senate sponsor of a bill for the 2025 session that would extend the end date for the state-based Young Adult Health Insurance Subsidy Pilot Program from 2025 to 2028. Also present at the Howard County press conference were U.S. Sen. Brian Feldman (D-Montgomery), Anne Arundel County Executive Stuart Pittman (D), Howard County Executive Calvin Ball (D), and state health officials and health care advocates;
Tuesday’s event, which called for an extension of the youth-focused grant program, was ironically held at the East Columbia 50+ Center, a community center aimed at residents 50 and older.
Young adults are one of the largest groups in the state without health insurance, according to the Maryland Health Benefits Exchange, the state’s insurance marketplace under the Affordable Care Act.
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“We really need that group in the insurance pool,” Feldman said. “These people think they won’t get sick and will live forever. And the way insurance works is that we need healthy young people to keep costs down for everyone else. .”
Under a 2021 law, Marylanders ages 18 to 37 who make up to 400% of the federal poverty level can receive subsidies to reduce their health care costs when they purchase a plan on the state’s insurance marketplace. The pilot program is scheduled to end in 2025 if the General Assembly does not choose to extend it.
Discounts vary by income and age, but young people who receive the subsidy will see their monthly premiums reduced by an average of $40, according to the Maryland Health Benefits Exchange. The subsidy is covered by the insurance company’s appraisal fees.
Vinny DeMarco, a health care advocate and president of the Maryland Health Care for All Coalition, said Tuesday that the program has been “very successful” in bringing young people into the market. .
Since the subsidy began in November 2021, youth enrollment on the exchange has increased by 46%, with more than 57,000 young people expected to benefit from state subsidies for health plans in 2024. MHBE recently reported that there are.
Having more people enroll in health plans will ensure coverage in the event of an accident or illness, while also lowering premiums for all other insurance customers, Pittman said. .
“It’s really simple,” he said. “If we don’t continue to help young people get onto the exchanges, interest rates will rise for the rest of us on the exchanges.
“Young people often go uninsured because their employers don’t offer it directly or because they just think they’re not defenseless and won’t get sick or get injured.” Pittman says. “We have to get them in.”
