Legislators are attempting to unlock about $25 million in sequestered funding to help pay for abortion care for people who are uninsured or underinsured.
The money comes from a fund that was created when the Affordable Care Act passed 15 years ago and has been growing since then.
“It mandated that insurers collect a $1 per month premium from Marylanders, which is then placed in a special fund designated exclusively for abortion care,” said Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman during a Thursday Senate Finance Committee hearing. “The truth is, the true cost of abortion care coverage is mere pennies on the dollar, leaving a significant portion of these funds untouched.”
That premium only comes from insurance plans purchased on the Maryland Health Exchange. The fund has been growing by about $3 million a year and the surplus has been sitting in the bank since, Lierman said.
Using the money would not impact the state budget.
Lawmakers are hoping to open the account for use as abortion providers across the state are seeing increased demand since the fall of Roe v Wade in 2022.
Maryland saw a 29% increase in abortions in 2023 compared to 2019, a vast majority came from non-state residents.
That spike is causing stressors for clinics.
“Requests for assistance to our organization have continued to skyrocket,” said Lynn McCann, the executive director of the Baltimore Abortion Fund. “We estimate that we would need about at least $6 million to $7 million to meet the current level of demand. Our organization's annual budget is about $2 million. Because funding is so limited, our organization has to operate with a fixed budget in order to make sure that assistance is available year-round. We're now operating week to week, and sometimes funds are exhausted within the first 24 to 48 hours, leaving hundreds of Maryland residents and patients with few, if any, alternatives.”
The money has some federal requirements because it works in conjunction with the ACA. Therefore, the money can only be used for direct abortion services and not things like security.
Maryland Right to Life spoke out against the bill at the hearing saying that the abortions targeted uninsured people.
