OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Issue Position: Ensuring Access to Health Care for All Marylanders

Issue Position

Date: Jan. 1, 2014
Issues: Unemployed and Low-Income Entitlements and the Safety Net Health Insurance Reproduction

Brooke has a strong understanding of the challenges many Baltimoreans have faced in accessing affordable high quality health insurance; as someone who lives with a chronic (and pre-existing) condition, she herself has struggled to stay insured continuously. Brooke has also seen her mother, a nurse practitioner at a Federally-Qualified Community Health Center, struggle to help her patients find and pay for high quality care. Brooke believes that in a city like Baltimore, which offers some of the best health care options in the world, it is unacceptable for anyone to go without health care because they do not have insurance.

Under the Affordable Care Act, access to insurance will soon greatly increase. On October 1, 2013, all Marylanders may begin signing up for a variety of affordable, high-quality health insurance plans through the Maryland Health Connection. There will be no penalties for pre-existing conditions and all plans will include a set of federally mandated minimum core benefits. Federal subsidies will be available to those with income up to 400% of the poverty line. (400% of the FPL is about $94,200 for a family of four.) Eligible Marylanders (up to 138% of the Federal Poverty Line, or $23,500 for a family of four) can also sign up at the Maryland Health Connection for Medicaid coverage. Coverage will start on January 1, 2014.

A change this big to our health insurance plans will be a huge challenge for many people to adjust to, and for the State to administer. As a Delegate for District 46, Brooke will partner with non-profit organizations, advocates, and communities to ensure everyone understands how to make the new system fit their needs.

Brooke also strongly supports providing access to the full range of reproductive health services to all women in Maryland. She is pro-choice, and has interned in the past for Planned Parenthood. She believes that all women, regardless of income, should have access to high quality reproductive health services.


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