In less than two months, health insurance exchanges around the country will be helping people to enroll in health insurance. In Maryland, you can get all your questions answered at Maryland Health Connection, our online exchange. Or you can sign up for Evergreen Health Co-Op, Maryland’s first non-profit health consumer oriented and operated plan.
One of the best things about Co-ops, besides the intent of offering affordable and comprehensive health insurance is that they will be partly managed by members. Evergreen will open positions to members on its board of directors which will make costs and operations transparent to the customers. It’s the first time that the American people will have a say in how their health insurance is run. Currently there are 24 states that have state-run co-ops, all of which have been given grants from the government.
Although Evergreen is a brand new organization, most of their insight comes from the current president and former officer of the Healthy Howard Health Plan which gives low-cost health insurance to residents of Howard County who aren’t eligible for Medicaid. The program also focuses on social determinants of health such as education, housing and employment.
It’s a common misconception that Medicaid serves all low-income individuals. But it doesn’t. It serves people with children, with disabilities or the elderly. If you’re a low-income childless adult, where do you turn? For the residents of Howard County they have their awesome comprehensive plan. For other Maryland residents they can turn to the Primary Adult Care (PAC) program which basically will hook you up with a primary care doctor but nothing else, and only if you make less than $2,000 a month. Otherwise you could turn to The Access Partnership (for people living near Johns Hopkins Hospital), the Maryland General Financial Assistance or a free health clinic such as Shepard’s Clinic. Starting January 2014, PAC will be no more, but what will happen to free health clinics?
Some clinics such as the Esperanza Center, which primarily serves the immigrant population, will continue as normal. Others may have to reconsider their purpose completely. Maybe we will see more health resource centers that focus on improving the social determinants of health. And others still might begin charging insurance companies for their services. It’s almost scary to think that free health care may become extinct but we shouldn’t have to have these non-profits filling in the gaps in the first place… right?
