AMAZING STUPIDITY IN MARYLAND

All so the Dems can avoid reining in their lawyer friends

Maryland Democratic leaders yesterday blamed the Republican state insurance commissioner for health maintenance organizations increasing their premiums and not a new tax the Democratic-controlled legislature levied on HMOs this month. But HMO officials said they are raising their rates to pass on to their customers the 2 percent tax enacted by the General Assembly two weeks ago. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. and House Speaker Michael E. Busch yesterday called for the resignation of Insurance Commissioner Alfred W. Redmer Jr., saying his recent bulletin encouraged HMOs to raise their rates.

Mr. Miller and Mr. Busch said Mr. Redmer was politically motivated in posting a bulletin that said HMOs could pass on to their customers a 2 percent tax on premiums if they notify the Maryland Insurance Administration in writing of the intentions. The bulletin was posted on the independent agency's Web site (www.mdinsurance.state.md.us) on Jan. 13, two days after Democratic lawmakers overrode Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s veto of a medical malpractice insurance reform bill that included the HMO tax.

Mr. Ehrlich, a Republican, had warned against levying the tax, saying HMOs would pass it on to "those who can least afford to pay it." Yesterday, Aetna Inc. of Hartford, Conn., said it was passing the 2 percent tax on to some of its HMO customers in Maryland because it had not planned for a tax when originally pricing its HMO premiums. "The tax was not built into the premiums we developed," Aetna spokesman Walter Cherniak said. Aetna's higher premiums — which will affect about 130,000 of the company's 200,000 Maryland customers — will take effect March 1, as will those of Mid-Atlantic Medical Services LLC, the health care provider commonly known as MAMSI.

Mr. Redmer said his bulletin did not tell the HMOs to increase rates but answered an inquiry about the tax.

The revenue from the HMO tax — about $64 million in three years — will be used to subsidize doctors' malpractice insurance premiums, which have risen nearly 70 percent in the past two years.

More here

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