Maryland’s Health Benefit Exchange will provide a marketplace for individuals and small businesses to purchase high quality, affordable health coverage. Because of subsidies through the Affordable Care Act, the Exchange will make health insurance newly accessible to hundreds of thousands of Marylanders.

Click Here to view the report to the Governor and Maryland General Assembly.

It provides recommendations for policies on a wide range of topics to help the Exchange succeed. These topics include six that are specifically mentioned in the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange Act:

1. The feasibility and desirability of the Exchange engaging in selective contracting and multistate or regional contracting

2. The rules under which health benefit plans should be offered inside and outside the Exchange in order to mitigate adverse selection and encourage enrollment in the Exchange

3. The design and operation of the Exchange’s Navigator Program and any other appropriate consumer assistance mechanisms

4. The design and function of the Small Business Health Options Plan (SHOP) Exchange beyond the requirements of the Affordable Care Act to promote
quality, affordability, and portability

5. How the Exchange can become self‐sustaining by 2015

6. How the Exchange should conduct its public relations and advertising campaign

In developing these recommendations, the Exchange Board worked with a broad range of interested Marylanders and teams of experts. The Board received a tremendous amount of input from four advisory committees, which consisted of stakeholders from the health insurance industry, health care providers and associations, community members and advocates, academia, business owners, consultants, and local government officials.