Health care system reforms under the Affordable Care Act will cost the state billions to implement but are also projected to generate income from FY 2014 to FY 2020 as a result of the newly insured, a new study reports.
Researchers at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s Hilltop Institute estimate that the unemployment rate will decrease nearly 1% by 2020 as a result of almost 135,000 jobs created across all sectors by the new legislation.
Dr. Jill Stein is facing a rematch with Mitt Romney when the Green Party’s national convention nominates her for president at a Baltimore hotel Saturday. The physician ran against Romney for governor of Massachusetts 10 years ago “in desperation” and “with low expectations,” she said in an interview Thursday.
“I had no interest in the political system,” Stein said, but she realized the cure to all the social, economic and health ills she saw was political. “I’m now practicing political medicine; it’s the mother of all illnesses.”
The Board of Public Works approved Wednesday the State Police’s purchase of a $7.1 million advanced 911 system which could allow citizens to call, text or even tweet for help.
The State Police, which handles about 3% of the state’s crime calls, will not only be on the cutting-edge of technology, they’ll have, well, technology in the 21 barracks where 911 calls are answered on standard telephones.
The national Tax Foundation got into a bit of a blogging bout with Gov. Martin O’Malley’s office Tuesday over what the foundation saw as misuse of its tax figures. But another problem with the blog was its use of figures about millionaires. It confuses the 157,000 households with liquid assets of $1 million with the 7,000 or so households which have income of $1 million a year.
More than two dozen witnesses testified before a joint legislative committee Tuesday on proposed regulation for upgraded septic systems across the state, most of them opposing the rule change. State Department of the Environment officials who wrote the regulations –– the only proponents aside from environmentalists –– told the Administrative, Executive and Legislative Review joint committee that applying best available septic technology statewide is the way to reduce nutrient sediment load in the Chesapeake Bay.
The Affordable Care Act upheld by the Supreme Court in late June is unbelievably complicated, results in new tax burdens, require lots of new paperwork, makes the shortage of primary care physicians worse and will likely produce some surprises as unexpected consequences unfold.
But it will expand health insurance coverage and possibly bend down the curve on costs by giving better access to care and changing payment methods, according to a trio of CEOs of the Baltimore region’s top health care providers.
Eighty-seven of the state’s 188 legislators earned an 100% from the Maryland League of Conservation Voters on their environment scorecard released Tuesday. More than 70% of this year’s A+ legislators represent constituents in Prince George’s and Montgomery Counties and Baltimore City — all large jurisdictions which elect no Republicans.
Chief Justice John Roberts’ opinion that the penalty for not buying health insurance in the Affordable Care Act is a tax helped spike a revival of the old chestnut: “The power to tax is the power to destroy.”
It was also a reminder that the power of Congress to directly tax the citizenry was one of the most hotly debated provisions of the new Constitution as the states considered whether to ratify it back in 1787 and 1788.
Republican members of the Maryland General Assembly, as usual, got A-pluses from Maryland Business for Responsive Government, but some Democrats improved their scores as well.
When it comes to finding waste, fraud and abuse — or just plain old carelessness — within Maryland government, no agency does more than the Office of Legislative Audits – mainly because it’s their job.
Bruce Myers, 61, has headed the office for the last 15 years and was the deputy legislative auditor for 10 years before that. On Friday, he retired after 35 years of producing hundreds of audits that have generated familiar headlines over the years.
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