Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist

Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist
Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Md Troopers Assoc #20 & Westminster Md Fire Dept Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist
Showing posts with label MD issues ObamaCare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MD issues ObamaCare. Show all posts

Friday, February 24, 2017

March 2, 2017 Affordable Care Act Town Hall – Carroll County


March 2, 2017 Affordable Care Act Town Hall – Carroll County

We discussed the Affordable Care Act Town Hall last night in the Carroll County NAACP meeting and folks asked for more information…

When: March 2, 2017 6 – 8 p.m.

Where: St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, 17 Bond Street, Westminster, MD 21158

According to information found on Facebook on here: https://www.facebook.com/events/622892697918244/

Are you passionate about protecting the coverage that the ACA provides? Have suggestions on how it can be improved?

Are you one of the 291,000 Marylanders enrolled in the ACA funded Medicaid expansion?

Are you one of the 142,872 Marylanders enrolled in a Qualified Health Plan?

Are your friends, family members, co-workers, or neighbors receiving crucial services from the ACA?

We will have a panel of professionals who will share their experience with the ACA as well as a panel of Carroll County residents who rely on the ACA for treatment and life sustaining medications.

Following the panel discussion, we will have an open forum. This is YOUR chance as a member of our community to let our elected officials know how much the ACA means to you, your family, your neighbors, and friends.

Please join us!

For more information, or if you have any questions, please email CarrollCoACATownHall@gmail.com



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Wednesday, May 07, 2014

Obamacare cost shockwave hits local schools equals bad news for Congressional Democrats

Americans for Limited Government:

Obamacare cost shockwave hits local schools equals bad news for Congressional Democrats
By Rick Manning
Calvert County, Maryland is a small, wealthy exurban enclave of Washington, DC, wedged between the Chesapeake Bay and the historic Patuxent River. 
A tradition rich locale whose county flag features a tobacco leaf symbolizing the historic crop that dominated the landscape even into the 21st century, the County school system is one of the best in the state.
But now the school system has a problem – Obamacare. 
The system faces a 13.7 percent increase in health care costs next year, as previously uncovered substitute teachers get covered and the overall policy costs are higher.
A Southern Maryland News article by Sara Newman spells out the bad news for everyone in the school system.   Victoria Karol, the District's acting director of human resources explains that there is hope that the County will be able to deal with the costs through negotiations with the teacher and administrator unions.
"We're going to have to work closely with those other unions and develop a health care committee," Victoria Karol said. "We're going to have to open a health care article next year in negotiations to help with this."
Newman quotes Nancy Highsmith, the newly appointed interim superintendent for the Schools as predicting, "There's no doubt we have got to bring health care on the table next year during negotiations. We cannot sustain this."
But Highsmith is not just looking toward the teacher's union, but also is targeting taxpayers who fund the District through taxes paid to the Calvert County government saying, "These are going to be very serious conversations we have to have with the county commissioners."
Calvert County Commissioner Evan Slaughenhoupt responds to these school administrators saying, "We've been able to stretch during this economic downturn and could be at the precipice of where discussions about reducing services could become a reality. Both the school system and the county employees performed extraordinarily at high standards while we have absorbed reduced revenue and increased costs. Time is of the essence now to prepare for the upcoming fiscal years."
This is the exact type of discussion that school districts and local governments are having across the nation as the reality of Obamacare hits their budgets.  How do they pay for it?
Should teachers and administrators be forced to pay the additional costs through increased deductions in paycheck deductions, should taxpayers pay higher taxes, or should there be budget cuts that impact the education, police, fire and social services that local government provides their constituents?
At a time when Obamacare supporters, like Calvert County's U.S. Representative Steny Hoyer, double down in support of the law, this new reality and the choices being forced upon local elected officials hit home for their constituents. 
As former House Speaker Tip O'Neill famously noted, "all politics is local."  Now that Obamacare is impacting local schools and public services, that truism promises disaster for those who foisted it upon the public and continue to refuse to repeal it.
Just a small lessen from the geographically smallest county in the deepest blue state of Maryland.
Rick Manning is vice president of public policy and communications for Americans for Limited Government and a resident of Calvert County, Maryland.
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Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Md Senator David Brinkley: More than $100 million spent with nothing to show for it

More than $100 million spent with nothing to show for it


February 11, 2014

Dear Kevin-  

Senator
 David R. Brinkley
Maryland has become known as a test kitchen for liberal policies. After the passage of Obamacare in DC, Maryland spent more than $100 million to voluntarily set up and market its own exchange. Led by Lt. Governor Anthony Brown, Democrats in Annapolis patted themselves on the back for leading the way. Yet, when these health care exchange web sites went live last fall,Maryland's site made the Federal rollout look like a success.  Hard to believe, isn't it?

Now Maryland is scrambling to find a way to clean up this mess and help the many Marylanders who lost their existing health care plan and could not sign up for a new plan on the State's exchange web site.

I am leading the call for a full independent investigation to uncover how these millions of tax dollars were spent and who is responsible for the mess. Only through an independent investigation with the power to subpoena will we be able to learn the truth. The Democrats are avoiding investigating this and getting the answers we as citizens deserve until this summer, conveniently timed after the Primary Election.

As always, if I can ever be of assistance to you, please do not hesitate to contact me in Annapolis or my District office.  

Sincerely, 
 
Senator David Brinkley  
  

Senator Brinkley in the News . . .
 
"Two-hundred-sixty million dollars through all these appropriations and we still don't have something that's working . . . " Senate Minority Leader David Brinkley said. 

The Baltimore Sun - February 3, 2014 - "Mr. Brown Gets a Reprieve" [Editorial] 
. . . Frankly, the best idea we've heard so far is from Senate Minority Leader David R. Brinkley who called for an independent probe. That was good enough for the Democrats when they weren't happy with hiring and firing practices in the administration of Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. nine years ago, and the same standard ought to apply today.

Senate Minority Leader David R. Brinkley (R-Frederick), who wants the state to hire outside counsel to investigate, scoffed at the suggestion that such an inquiry would reduce the number of Marylanders who get health insurance.
"They are recognizing that there's an ongoing problem, but they don't want to address it because it might cause embarrassment to the lieutenant governor in his gubernatorial bid," he said.
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Sunday, February 09, 2014

Washington Post: Court papers escalate fight between key contractors on Md. health insurance exchange

Court papers escalate fight between key contractors on Md. health insurance exchange

By Jenna Johnson and Mary Pat Flaherty, Published: February 7, 2014


One of the two companies that built Maryland’s troubled online health insurance exchange charged in court papers Friday that the lead contractor “concealed its lack of relevant expertise” when it bid on the contract.

Escalating a bitter feud, EngagePoint alleged that Noridian Healthcare Solutions had no experience in developing the type of software the exchange would need. EngagePoint also said Noridian “lacked the expertise, resources and commitment actually required” to develop and operate the Web site through which Marylanders were supposed to sign up for insurance under the federal Affordable Care Act.

Noridian fired EngagePoint in October, and the two companies — which are suing each other in federal court in Baltimore — are fighting over employees, money and work that remains to be completed.

[….]

Maryland Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown (D), who was tasked with implementing health-care reform in Maryland, said top state officials became aware of potential problems in September but did not realize their gravity. Maryland’s exchange crashed Oct. 1, its first day, and has been plagued with problems that have made it difficult for Marylanders to sign up for health insurance.

[…]

The exchange is largely functioning through work-arounds, state health officials have said. Rather than signing up for insurance through the Web site, many Marylanders have contacted call centers and spent hours on the phone. Some applications are being processed on paper.


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