The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #74062

Vincent DeMarco, JD, MA, Maryland Citizens' Health Initiative, 2600 Saint Paul Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, (410) 235-9000, demarco@mdinitiative.org

Since 1999, the Maryland Citizens’ Health Initiative has built a powerful statewide coalition of religious, community, health care, labor and business organizations seeking to guarantee quality, affordable health care for all Marylanders. The Initiative has also worked with to health care policy experts from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the University of Maryland School of Law to come up with a politically and economically viable health care for all plan for the state. We are now poised to work with our broad based coalition to make our plan a reality for the State. Because Maryland does not have an ballot initiative process, we are working to pass health care for all legislation through our General Assembly.

I will describe the health care for all plan we have devised the various health care funding and delivery options that we decided to incorporate in that plan and those that we decided not to incorporate. I will also discuss how we built our coalition, including how we used different techniques to reach out to various kinds of groups and how we included our coalition members in our decision making process through constant email communication and public forums. Finally, I will describe our political and legislative strategies, including how we made health care for all a major issue in the 2002 state legislative elections and how we are working to pass a major piece of health care for all legislation in 2004.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will be able to:
• Identify the objectives of the Maryland Health Care for All program.
• Discuss the considerations for pursuing a legislative strategy for health care reform.

Keywords: Health Insurance, Health Reform

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: President, Maryland Citizens' Health Initiative