Maryland Healthcare Package: Young Adult Subsidy, Snap Enrollment, Affordability Boards pass,

MARYLAND – With just days left in the General Assembly session, Maryland lawmakers have passed a series of bills aimed at expanding healthcare access and combating costs across the state.

Maryland Healthcare for All Coalition President Vincent DeMarco tells 47ABC they are celebrating the passage of a bill to extend the young adult subsidy for low-income people ages 18-24 looking to buy into the Maryland Healthcare Exchange for another two years.

“46,000 families have been helped, 17,000 new young people got enrolled, so this year the Maryland General Assembly has voted to extend that program for another two years, and then a study to see how to make it permanent,” DeMarco said.

Also passed by the General Assembly, a bill to automatically enroll SNAP recipients to Medicaid, in a move DeMarco says will help enroll an additional 60,000 Marylanders who already qualified for the program.

DeMarco also applauded the passage of a bill to establish the state’s Drug Affordability Board and give them additional funding to give the board the authority to regulate drug prices.