Craig Blasts MD Obamacare Rates

By Tyler Waldman

Harford County Executive David Craig is calling the insurance rates on Maryland's upcoming health insurance exchange a "massive new tax."

“What we have here is Maryland’s health disconnection,” Craig, a Republican gubernatorial candidate, said in a release. “This entire contraption will fall apart unless untold thousands of healthy people inexplicably decide to go online and buy expensive insurance instead of making a car payment.  Private insurance carriers are not participating and not enough healthy, working people will either, and this is not going to work.”

Under the Affordable Care Act, every person must be covered by a qualifying insurance plan or face a tax penalty. Each state may create an online marketplace for individuals to compare and enroll in qualifying plans, if their employer does not offer health insurance. Enrollment on Maryland's state-run marketplace begins Oct. 1. Many states are opting to let the federal government operate their exchanges

Last week, the Maryland Insurance Administration approved marketplace rates up to one-third less than what insurers had been asking in some cases, The Washington Post reports. The Maryland rates on the individual marketplace are the lowest approved in the country so far.

Federal tax subsidies will be provided to many buyers, the Post WonkBlog notes.

On Friday, Aetna pulled out of the individual marketplace in Maryland, with officials there saying that the premiums wouldn't cover the company's costs, The Baltimore Sunreports.

Vincent DeMarco of the Maryland Citizens Health Initiative told the paper he wasn't worried about Aetna's departure.

"There are seven carriers left providing a broad range of services, which we think are at reasonable rates, especially with the subsidy that the federal government is providing," he said. "Marylanders will be well-served."

Craig, however, contends a young person selecting a "bronze plan" in Maryland would pay 83 percent more than the going annual premiums for a comparable plan today, citing Government Accountability Office statistics. The plan Craig cites is the lowest-premium plan in Maryland statistics, with a $10,000 deductible and $12,500 out of pocket maximum for a 30-year old man who does not smoke.

He ties the insurance rate announcement to state tax and fee increases and recent toll increases on state bridges and toll highways.

"These are only the initial, visible cracks in the foundation of the health care law, which like other federal public policy experiments, Maryland rushes into without conducting due diligence," said Craig.  "I’m concerned about the cracks we don’t see yet.”