The Capital, By Erin Cox.
Though the fate of federal health care reform remains uncertain, Maryland is among a handful of states pressing forward to make changes, state officials said. "We think that the reforms offer some great tools for Maryland," Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, secretary of the Department of Mental Health and Hygiene, said yesterday at a health care forum in Annapolis. "We don't want to be so far ahead that we're on a ledge and we can see the fallout behind us, but we want to be at the right pace to be able to take advantage of this." Gov. Martin O'Malley introduced legislation last night that would create a health care exchange that will work like a supermarket for insurance policies. Health officials have been working on other reforms to create financial incentives to keep people healthy. Shafstein said the legislation will not consider how to pay for the exchange, leaving that decision to a future session of the Maryland General Assembly. States face a year-end deadline to create an exchange, but many have taken few or no steps to establish one while the federal law is facing judicial scrutiny. The U.S. Supreme Court has set aside a week in late March to hear a challenge to the law, which has come under fire for mandating that every American purchase insurance. . . . Click
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