Sen. Guy Guzzone (D-Howard) sponsors SB 848, which would create a new grant fund to help extend abortion access across the state. Comptroller Brooke Lierman, in blue, was among the supporters. (Photo by Danielle J. Brown/Maryland Matters)
The Maryland Health Department could soon have access to millions of dollars in unspent insurance funds that it hopes to use to fund abortions for uninsured and underinsured Marylanders.
That is the goal of legislation gaining momentum this week in House and Senate committees: Giving the state access to about $25 million in premium surcharges that were required as part of the federal Affordable Care Act but have not been spent down.
The House Health and Government Operations on Wednesday passed House Bill 930 on party lines and sent it to the full House. The Senate Finance Committee took testimony Thursday on Senate Bill 848, including testimony from Budget and Tax Committee Chair Guy Guzzone (D-Howard), a lawmaker who is not known for carrying reproductive rights legislation.
“It’s probably pretty unusual for you to see me here on an abortion bill — because I’m just the numbers guy. I just do budget,” Guzzone said in testimony Thursday. “But this is about money. I was interested in the fact that it’s about some money that’s sort of locked up right now.”
That money is the $1-a-month fee that insurers in the ACA marketplace are required to collect on every policy, to fund abortion services for their policyholders. But that fund has been growing by about $3 million as collections have outpaced need.
The House and Senate bills would create the Public Health Abortion Grant Program Fund, administered by state Health Department. It would collect the leftover insurance funds every year, which would be used to issue grants to providers to help cover abortions for underinsured or uninsured Marylanders.
While he got involved because of the numbers, Guzzone assured that he supports access to abortion as well.
“I support it. And because I support it, I don’t like to see money left on the table,” he said.
Guzzone was flanked by a panel of women supporting the legislation, including Comptroller Brooke Lierman (D). The Maryland Department of Health and the Office of the Attorney General also support the measure. Also present Thursday were reproductive rights advocates and abortion providers.
“The truth is, the true cost of abortion care coverage is mere pennies on the dollar, leaving a significant portion of these funds untouched,” Lierman said.
Passing SB848 would take money that is just collecting dust and allow it to be used to issue grants to providers to help cover care for underinsured or uninsured Marylanders and ensure that those dollars are “used for their intended purpose,” Lierman said.
Laura Bogley, executive director for Maryland Right to Life, sees the bill differently and says it “targets poor and underinsured women and their babies for abortion violence.”
“This bill uses insurance premiums from insured women to abort the children of uninsured women,” Bogley said in her testimony. “This not only increases health care costs for all, but it also infringes on our First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and free exercise of religion.”
This is the second year abortion-rights advocates have tried to tap the ACA fund, but neither the House nor the Senate version got out of committee last year.
Then-Sen. Ariana Kelly (D-Montgomery) sponsored the Senate bill last year. But that measure also proposed using the ACA dollars to help boost security for reproductive health centers. Providers at the time reported increased levels of harassment from people who are opposed to abortions. But there were questions as to whether the fund could be used for such purposes under federal law.
That bill, like its House companion, faltered and never left committee.
Robyn Elliott on behalf of the Women’s Law Center of Maryland, confirmed Thursday that the ACA dollars cannot be used to boost security at reproductive health centers, which is why this year’s bills are narrower — and, so far, more successful,
House Bill 930, sponsored by Del. Lesley Lopez (D-Montgomery), has been sent to the full House, but it will not be heard on the floor until at least next week.
“You might remember that we tried very hard to see if there was some flexibility,” Elliott told the Finance Committee. “We learned through this process that it was crystal clear that it had to be for direct services.”