Health care (transformation) is one of the best issues this current administration has done thus far. With this change individuals will have the opportunity to seek professional and quality health care services. Who would want to return to the days of the horse and buggy, b/w tv sets, manual typewriters, pac man, you get the point? That's about how old the health care system was in the USA. Each day the news is filled with social tragedies in which lives are taken at the hands of known acquaintences and/or family members. Our society is stricken with the institutions of white collar crime permeating throughout this great nation and greed which tends to strike at the very fabric of our country. If you are looking for affordable health insurance check out http://bit.ly/9fDY7U . I hope everyone will soon recognize and use the resources made by this transformation to seek professional medical attention as the need arises rather than turning to illegal and criminal activities to resolve their issues.

I would point out that these incremental reform policies, sponsored by groups like Maryland Healthcare for All, have been a failure if judged by the criteria of achieving universal healthcare. Since the 2007 emergency legislative session passed the bill that created (1) the state Medicaid expansion which now covers adult child caretakers to 116% of the FPL (Federal Poverty Limit) and went into effect in mid-2008; (2) created a subsidized small group market plan and (3) created the partial insurance program (no hospitalization) Primary Adult Care for childless adults between 44% and 116% of the FPL; the number of uninsured in Maryland has increased by most estimates; probably by over 100,000. The recession has overwhelmed the safety net. (For example the individual health insurance market declined by 90,000 covered lives in 2009 alone; this does not include the employer sponsored group market or the small group market.)

Meanwhile Medicaid has expanded tremendously since the recession began in late 2007; virtually all the expansion in cost was picked up by the federal government in the form of an increased federal match of 63%; which will fall back to 50% on June 30, 2010. The state will then be facing a short-fall of around 1 Billion Dollars to make up for the lost federal funding in Medicaid.

If we had a state single payer healthcare system with dedicated funding, we would save a lot of money, we'd have health care for all and no one would lose their insurance in a recession. Further recessions could be planned for with reserve funds like the state already does for the general fund.