House Dem: Move Maryland to federal health insurance exchange

Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.) on Tuesday asked Maryland state officials to switch to the federally run health insurance exchange, while problems with the Maryland Health Connection are fixed.

Delaney has made this request before but said state officials have not answered him, even though the situation with the state-run service has not improved.

{mosads}”[I]t is extremely troubling that major problems with the Maryland Health Connection persist,” he wrote to Josh Sharfstein, Maryland’s secretary of Health and Mental Hygiene. “The latest malfunction dates not to 2012 or 2013, but to this month and occurs within an area of the rollout — Medicaid enrollment — that was supposedly functioning well.”

Delaney said Maryland is falling “well short” of enrollment goals for private coverage and is sending Medicaid enrollees “faulty applications containing the private information of strangers.”

“These are egregious and unacceptable errors that raise serious doubts about the viability of our exchange,” he wrote.

Delaney said he has asked repeatedly for an assessment of what it would cost to switch to the federally run HealthCare.gov website but said officials have not answered him yet.

“This lack of openness is not serving the interest of the people of Maryland,” he wrote. “I once again respectfully ask for a response.”