Bernie Sanders would prefer that everyone have Medicare, but he can live with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) coverage expansion programs, for now.
The other major contenders for the 2016 Democratic Party presidential nomination all support PPACA, and it makes sense that PPACA was not a particularly hot topic during the first Democratic primary candidate debate.
But one of the participants, Martin O’Malley, the former governor of Maryland, oversaw the construction of a state-based PPACA health insurance exchange, the Maryland Health Connection.
On the one hand, Maryland’s exchange board has been good about publishing information about enrollment activity, and about exchange operations. The exchange has enrolled about 124,000 people in private qualified health plan (QHP) coverage for 2015, and about 483,000 people in Medicaid coverage.
The Maryland exchange board has also been humble. From the beginning, it’s made a serious effort to reach out to agents and brokers.
On the other hand, in spite of having generous, enthusiastic state support, the Maryland exchange also faced severe startup problems. Its chief was one of the first exchange chiefs to resign.