Maryland Obtains Waiver for Health Reinsurance Program

Maryland officials will formally announce Wednesday that the federal government has approved an ACA state innovation waiver intended to help shore up Maryland’s individual health insurance market, which has suffered from skyrocketing premiums and declining participation by healthier persons following the repeal of the ACA’s individual mandate. The plan will levy a one-year state assessment on insurers of about $380 million and use those funds to subsidize the costliest claims generated by policies sold in Maryland’s individual market. Much of the $380 million to be collected is intended to come from funds that carriers used to allocate to federal taxes. Those tax provisions were repealed when changes were made to the federal tax code last year. Federal matching funds will make up the difference of the necessary funding. The bills that created the reinsurance plan and sought the federal waiver received broad bipartisan support from the Maryland General Assembly and Republican Governor Larry Hogan.