Vinny DeMarco is head of the Maryland Citizens’ Health Initiative. Here is his letter to the editor in yesterday’s paper responding to my blog pointing out that a new law requiring health coverage to age 25 for dependents doesn’t apply to most Maryland families.
Although Jay Hancock’s column “New health mandate less than mandatory” (May 11) correctly points out some of the limits of Maryland’s new law expanding health coverage for young adults, he greatly understates the law’s potential.
As of Jan. 1, Maryland became one of only a handful of states to allow young people up to age 25, whether they are in college or not, to stay on their parents’ health care insurance if they remain dependents.
There is no doubt that tens of thousands of the more than 100,000 previously uninsured Marylanders between the ages of 18 and 25 will benefit from the new Maryland law.
It is true, as Mr. Hancock points out, that Maryland does not have the authority to apply this new law to federal employees or to large companies regulated by federal insurance rules, and that the Maryland Health Care Commission will determine whether the law will apply to small businesses in our state.
I urge Mr. Hancock to join us in working to convince the federal government and the Health Care Commission to also move the age limit for dependent coverage to 25.
Vincent DeMarco
Baltimore
Found here.
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