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A health plan ‘down payment’ is one way states are retooling individual mandate


 


Washington state has convened a group to study how to enforce a mandate, and no legislation has been introduced yet in California.

Meanwhile, Maryland officials also hope to learn from the experiences of other states.

For instance, lawmakers in Maryland are considering the creation of a state-based, basic, low-cost health plan, as well as a fund to help insurers cope with the burden of very high-cost patients.

These efforts also come from the work of the commission.

Stan Dorn, a senior fellow with the pro-Obamacare group Families USA, said Maryland “had the foresight to see threats coming and to try to be proactive about it.”

Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit news service covering health issues. It is an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation that is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

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