Maryland pushes forward with Obamacare despite uncertain future

Maryland lawmakers and health officials vowed Monday to fight plans by President-elect Donald Trump to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, and said they are moving ahead with enrolling people in health plans.

Sen. Ben Cardin, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings and Maryland Health Secretary Van Mitchell were at the University of Maryland, Baltimore on Monday to announce College Enrollment Week, a push to get younger people insured. But talk quickly turned to keeping expansion of health coverage to as many Americans as possible.

“The big elephant in the room… is the whole idea of the Affordable Care Act and its future,” Cummings said. “We really don’t want to see it taken apart.”

On the campaign trail, Trump called Obamacare a disaster, and he promised to repeal it and replace it.

Since the election, he has said he would keep two of its key provisions: allowing young people to stay on their parents’ health plans until age 26, and requiring insurance companies to continue providing coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions.

Cummings and Rep. John Sarbanes said it won’t be easy to keep covering pre-existing conditions and allowing young adults to stay on their parents coverage without considering other parts of the law.

“The president-elect has left an opening for us to have a discussion, and hopefully help him see that repealing this thing is a lot more complicated than he thinks,” Sarbanes said.

Source: Maryland pushes forward with Obamacare despite uncertain future – Baltimore Sun