Del. Bonnie Cullison, vice chair of the House Health and Government Operations Committee in the Maryland Legislature, says her top priorities in Maryland healthcare are reaching universal healthcare coverage and lowering the state’s growing healthcare costs. We sat down with Cullison at the 2023 Maryland State of Reform Health Policy Conference in the spring to hear about some of her priorities.
While she acknowledges that only six percent of Maryland’s population is uninsured, and that the state’s reinsurance program has significantly helped reduce healthcare costs, she says much work remains.
“That’s 350,000 people too many who don’t have healthcare [coverage] … we have managed costs fairly well over the last four years with our reinsurance program, but that’s not something that we intended to go on forever. And the only thing that will get us to a point where we don’t need it anymore is by making sure people stay health, and they will do that better if they’re insured.”
Maryland’s 2024 legislative session will begin on Jan. 10th.