Develop HIX Now, MD Official Urges States

He asked for a show of hands from attendees representing states where there is public/political/legal opposition to the ACA. Then he asked that group if they had noticed executive departments working clandestinely with private sector and nonprofit participants to lay the foundation for the eventual implementation for the ACA. The show of hands confirmed, he says, that even in states where the ACA is opposed, progress is being made to implement healthcare reform.

Maryland was among the early adopters of provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Brown says that on the day President Obama signed PPACA into law, the governor of Maryland established the Healthcare Reform Coordinating Council to help implement the PPACA. "I can say that there was a significant amount of anxiety among stakeholders who wondered what the Affordable Care Act meant for them."

Brown notes that while some states have voiced concerns about the exponential increase in healthcare costs that may come as part of healthcare reform, Maryland officials are convinced that the state has more to gain than lose.