Craig Calls On O’Malley, Brown To Disclose Maryland Health Exchange Costs

Harford County Executive and Maryland candidate for Governor David Craig called on the Administration to release the cost of Maryland’s health exchange as oversight hearings intended to uncover chronic problems are set to begin today in the General Assembly. Noting the media has reported figures that vary wildly between $100 million to $200 million, Craig said providing basic cost information is an obvious and transparent step the O’Malley-Brown Administration must take to make the hearings useful.

“I am dumbfounded that legislators should even have to ask how much this thing costs,” said Craig. “This Administration prides itself on state-stat and modern government accountability programs, but when it comes to disclosing simple accounting information that might embarrass them, it takes an act of the state legislature to learn how much money is going down the drain.”

Craig said the hearing should not even start until the Administration provides the cost.

“It is ludicrous that legislators are going to sit around a table in Annapolis asking Administration officials to please tell taxpayers how much of their money is being wasted on Maryland Health Connection, when the amount should already have been made public,” he said.

In a misleading statement on the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange website, the state organization that oversees Maryland Health Connection for consumers, the O’Malley-Brown Administration discloses that the federal government alone has provided $157 million in grants. What is not mentioned is the cost of state funding going to the exchange including cost over-runs with contractors or recently-enacted legislation intended to address enrollment problems.

Lt. Governor and Administration health care point man Anthony Brown issued a press release after a bill signing ceremony implementing Maryland’s exchange stating that no state funds were needed to “create an exchange that fits the unique strengths and needs of our State.”

Maryland’s exchange is a national embarrassment. Enrollment numbers are tracking well below other states implementing their own exchange. Horror stories continue to mount of consumers seeking assistance being mistakenly directed to Washington State and Pennsylvania. The General Assembly rushed through Administration-backed emergency legislation to shift consumers to another state-managed insurance program that is scheduled to be phased out without knowing the cost. And most recently, leaders in the legislature waffled over whether to provide any direct oversight over the botched roll out of the exchange.

Craig has previously called on O’Malley and Brown to stop wasting money and hindering access to health care and to promote direct enrollment options through insurance carriers and brokers. The Administration then took a modest step in that direction by working with insurance industry leaders to develop a telephone help line.