ARRA Healthcare Funding Event
March 23, 2009
As Prepared for Delivery
Good afternoon. It’s great to be here today as we kick off “Cover the Uninsured Week,” joined by so many individuals who are working to protect our hardest hit citizens during this economic downturn – Secretary John Colmers, Jay Wolvovsky, Vinny DeMarco, and all of our healthcare professionals here today… thank you for your work.
And I especially want to thank Senator Cardin and all the members of Maryland’s Congressional Delegation, including Senator Mikulski, who I know wanted to be here today.
Because of their hard work, and because of the courage of President Obama to stand up and fight for our families, Congress passed a bill that will provide a total of $4 billion for Maryland during these tough times – of which almost $1.5 billion will go towards our critical healthcare needs.
In all, we’re receiving $1.4 billion in federal Medicaid resources that will cover the health care costs of more than 53,000 Marylanders, more than $17 million for prevention and wellness programs, and $10 million for the Women, Infant, and Children Program.
Finding a Way Forward
Because of those vital dollars, and because of the investments we’ve already made here in Maryland, our State’s health care safety net remains strong and stable – even during this national economic crisis. It’s been one of our greatest goals as we work to protect the priorities we share in Maryland:
- To strengthen and grow the ranks of an upwardly mobile middle class;
- To improve public safety and public education in every part of our State, and;
- To expand opportunity – the opportunity to learn and to earn, and the opportunity to enjoy the health of the people that we love, to more people rather than fewer.
Two years ago, our Administration made a commitment to the people of Maryland that we would work to make healthcare more affordable and more available for our families, seniors and small businesses.
Working together, we’ve been able to expand health care coverage to 100,000 Marylanders that did not have it before. What does that mean in terms of last year and this year? It means 33,000 more people now have health care coverage that did not have it last year.
Together, we’ve made dental care available to thousands of underserved children across our State – so that we never lose another child like Deamonte Driver, a little boy from Prince George’s County who died when an untreated toothache became an infection that spread to his brain.
Together, we’ve closed the Medicare Part D donut hole, and we’ve increased funding for our Medicaid Older Adults Waiver by almost 25% since 2007.
And together, we’ve expanded healthcare to 150 small businesses throughout Maryland, covering 700 more employees.
And thanks to the leadership of Delegate Pete Hammen and Delegate Roger Manno, we’re also getting closer to passing a bill this session that will expand the Small Business Health Program we passed last year.
We’ve made important progress, but there’s more to do if we’re going to insulate our hard working families from the brutal effects of this economic downturn. More and more people are either having their work hours cut, or are losing their jobs altogether. And too often, our families are forced to choose between paying their rent, putting food on the table or seeing a doctor.
But thanks to vital dollars coming in from the Recovery and Reinvestment package, as well as the hard-won progress we’ve made here in Maryland in partnership with members of the General Assembly, we continue move forward.
Before I turn it over, I also want to mention a website we’ve created to help people get through this economic crisis. It can be found by going to www.problemsolver.maryland.gov, and will enable Marylanders to learn about the state and federal resources that are available to them if they qualify.
We’re making these commitments – building this safety net for our families and especially for our hardest hit citizens – because we feel that it’s imperative to our ability to continue making progress.
Thank you very, very much.
