Maryland state retirees catch a break on prescription coverage

MARYLAND – In Maryland, state retirees are catching a break with their prescription coverage.

Back in 2011, a law was passed under the O’Malley Administration that would cause these retirees to move from a state prescription drug plan to Medicare Part D Plan. This means the full prescription care they say they were promised would be stripped away. We’re told they were promised full prescription care with their benefits package.

Many people didn’t realize this would go into effect, until a recent letter was sent out to state retirees telling them they would no longer have a plan and that they would need to enroll for open enrollment.

MAC Inc’s State Health Insurance Program Coordinator, Michelle Parker says, “The law was signed and it was brought in a bit earlier so that instead of happening in 2020, it went to July of 2019 and January of 2019.”

Under the law, 46,000 thousand retirees would be affected and that’s not even including their spouse or children.

But some relief has kicked in. Last month, four retirees sued the state and the federal court has approved a temporary injunction. That injunction has stopped state retirees from enrolling. For the next year, state retirees are protected.

But depending on the result of this order, they may be out of luck until next year’s enrollment date.

Several retirees told 47 ABC that if they had to give one suggestion, they would ask to be grandfathered in since they were retired before the 2011 bill went into affect.

The MAC Center has been educating folks through this entire process and they hope there will be a positive outcome at the end of this hearing.