Lawmakers and health advocates are hoping to expand the jurisdiction of Maryland’s Prescription Drug Affordability Board this year to allow the organization to negotiate pharmaceutical prices for private insurance plans in the state.

Legislators tried to pass a similar bill last year, but it failed to make it to the governor's desk.

Now, supporters are hopeful that 2025 will be the year.

The General Assembly approved the Prescription Drug Affordability Board’s plan to set upper payment limits on drug prices under state and local health plans last October.

The upper payment limits are just one of the tools the board has to reduce drug costs, but it is the one with the most bite.

The Board is currently in the process of considering limits on six different drugs.

The drugs include the diabetes and weight loss medication Ozempic and Dupixent, a medication that’s used to treat asthma.

However, advocates want to expand the board’s ability to limit high-cost drugs. The new bill could lessen drug prices for all Marylanders, not just those on government plans.

“It doesn't make any sense for us all to be gouged by the big drug corporation,” said Vincent DeMarco, president of Healthcare for All! a drug affordability group. “This Prescription Drug Affordability Board should have the authority to make high-cost drugs more affordable for all of us.”

Demarco said lawmakers are pushing for other initiatives involving health as well.

One bill will extend a pilot program that gives young adults discounts on health insurance.

The subsidies are available to people 18 to 37 who make up to 400% of the federal poverty level.

The program discounts premiums to make health insurance more affordable.

“Sixty seven thousand altogether have benefited,” said Vincent DeMarco, president of Maryland Healthcare for All! a health advocacy organization. “These are young people, many of them minorities, many of them people who have low paying jobs, who can't afford health care, who now have the health care coverage they need. And we need to continue this, this program.”

The pilot program started in 2022, but expires in 2025.

New legislation would extend the policy into 2028.

Finally, lawmakers are introducing a bill that will tax polluters. DeMarco says the money garnered from that program would go into Medicaid and health equality resources.