Maryland Citizens Health Initiative Education Fund

MCHI is focused on addressing access, costs and quality in our health care system. Throughout each of these initiatives, MCHI is guided by a deep concern for promoting equitable access and outcomes for people of color and other vulnerable populations.

MCHI works with our partners to promote access to health care through maximizing health care coverage in our state. This work includes close collaboration with the state's insurance marketplace, the Maryland Health Connection and Medicaid program to raise awareness of enrollment opportunities and coverage benefits. The organization has also worked to streamline the enrollment process and maximize coverage rates through smart policy change that makes it easier (and more affordable) to get covered.

Our work to address costs by reining in the rising cost of prescription drugs. Prescription drugs are a primary cost driver in rising premiums and create significant financial burden on vulnerable Maryland families.

Finally, our work to address quality involves representing consumers at the table when major changes are made to our health care system. While government agencies and private stakeholders negotiate changes to payment structures and other policies which directly impact the quality of care patients receive, MCHI is there to speak up on behalf of consumers to ensure that the outcome truly reflects the patient's best interests.

MCHI works at the grassroots level with hundreds of organizations across the state to better understand barriers to quality affordable health care. Together, we learn more about these issues and build support for systemic change through feasible and effective policy solutions to address them. MCHI is active at the local, state and federal level on each of these initiatives. MCHI works closely with a sister 501c4 entity to support strategic direct and grassroots lobbying when necessary to enact these proposals.

MCHI has earned a reputation for effective public health advocacy, thanks to highly visible and successful campaigns that we lead year after year. The core components of our approach include partnerships with nationally recognized policy experts to generate evidence based-policy solutions. Then these policies are tested by professional pollsters. MCHI shares these proposals and polling data with our coalition partners across the state which include representatives from labor, business, faith, professional and community-based organizations. As the coalition of supporters grow, MCHI works with key media outlets to promote broad awareness of the issue and make it a priority for policy makers. MCHI celebrates every victory, assists with implementation and monitors each measure for long-term impact.

MCHI has used this model effectively since 1999 on campaigns which led to historic coverage gains, raised taxes on alcohol and tobacco products, protected the ACA and prohibited price gouging on certain prescription drugs.

MCHI has championed several policies which have helped hundreds of thousands of Marylanders gain coverage, rein in rising health care costs and improve the quality of care for all. Recent victories include:

Advancing Health Equity: In 2020, our coalition launched the Health Equity Resource Initiative which the Maryland General Assembly passed in 2021. The new emergency law immediately allocates $59M of funding over five years to support local efforts to improve more equitable access to health care and improve disparities in outcomes. It is based on a successful Health Enterprise Zones pilot in five jurisdictions across the state of Maryland.

Creating the nation's first Prescription Drug Affordability Board and Easy Enrollment Health Insurance Program: In 2019 Maryland enacted two landmark laws that will rein in rising drug costs for state and local governments and make it easier for uninsured state residents to enroll into coverage using information on their tax forms. In the critical early months of the 2020 pandemic, this program helped thousands of Marylanders gain access to health insurance quickly.

Banning “Gag Rules” on Pharmacists: In 2018 Maryland became the eleventh state in the nation to ban the so-called “gag rule” by which some Pharmaceutical Benefit Managers prohibit pharmacists from telling consumers about the least expensive way to purchase their drugs.

Promoting Quality and Affordability: In 2018 we helped pass legislation to 1) create a reinsurance program to stabilize premiums on the individual market, 2) provide protections against proposed federal rules to expand substandard limited-duration plans and association health plans, and 3) compel the Health Insurance Coverage Protection Commission to study and report on creating a statewide individual mandate to replace the federal mandate that will no longer be effective starting in 2020 as well as the Basic Health Plan.

Preventing Prescription Drug Price-Gouging: In 2017, we helped Maryland become the first state to grant the Attorney General the authority to hold pharmaceutical companies accountable for “unconscionable” increases in the prices of generic or off-patent drugs.

Putting Maryland First: The Maryland Health Benefit Exchange recently celebrated its 10th anniversary. Thanks to our coalition's advocacy Maryland remains at the forefront of states implementing and building upon the ACA to achieve historic reductions in the percentage of uninsured state residents.

Saving kids from alcohol and tobacco: The Maryland General Assembly’s decision to increase the sales tax on alcohol by 3%, the tax on cigarettes by $1.00, the tax on little cigars to 70 percent of the wholesale price and double the tax on smokeless (chew or spit) tobacco, has saved thousands of young lives from addiction to these deadly products. MCHI made sure that revenue from these taxes went toward health care programs like Medicaid to serve hundreds of thousands of Marylanders.