Democrats criticize Hogan over federal health care proposal

Kathleen Matthews (center), chairwoman of the Maryland Democratic Party, speaks in February with Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (left) and Sen. Thomas M. “Mac” Middleton, D-Charles County and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee (right). (The Daily Record / Bryan P. Sears)

State Democrats Wednesday criticized Gov. Larry Hogan for playing politics and what they said was a lack of leadership in opposing a proposed federal rollback of the Affordable Care Act.

Kathleen Matthews, chairwoman of the Maryland Democratic Party, called Hogan “the last to lead” among his Republican governor counterparts.

“We’ve seen other Republican governors strongly condemn Trump-care for weeks and months,” Matthews said. “They’ve been publicly pressuring their GOP colleagues in Washington to oppose the health care plan while our governor, Larry Hogan, has been missing in action through this entire time. Instead of standing up for Maryland he’s been waiting for the writing on the wall.”

All but one of Maryland’s two senators and eight congressmen are Democrats. Rep. Andy Harris is the lone Republican in Maryland’s delegation.

The teleconference with reporters is the latest in a continuing effort to tie Hogan to President Donald Trump, a fellow Republican, as the 2018 campaign for Maryland governor kicks into gear.

“We’re concerned because this really would cause a state of emergency to Marylander’s health care,” Matthews said. “I think it’s clear that repealing the Affordable Care Act and replacing it with Trump-care would be devastating to Marylanders.”

The Senate Bill calls for deep cuts to Medicaid that could potentially result in millions of moderate and low-income insurance consumers losing their coverage.

A recent scoring by the Congressional Budget Office projected as many as 22 million people could lose health care under the Senate GOP proposal. Matthews and sources speaking on the Democratic conference call projected more than 300,000 of those would be in Maryland. A loss of federal funding could eliminate a projected $1.5 billion in funds for Maryland.

“Not only would it be a loss of coverage for hundreds of thousands of people affecting so many families, but we realize it would be major blow to our state economy but be a major hole in our state budget,” she said.

Hogan issued a statement in opposition to the proposal almost immediately after it was released.

Matthews, speaking Wednesday, said it wasn’t good enough.

“We saw him issue a wishy-washy statement last week,” Matthews said. “He has avoided taking a real stand on this.”

But Hogan’s statement drew praise from Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen last week.

“Governor Hogan is right to reject the Senate Republican bill,” Van Hollen said in an interview with WBAL television.

Since January, Hogan has expressed concern about proposals to roll back the Affordable Care Act, said Amelia Chassé, a Hogan spokeswoman.

Those efforts have included speaking the the federal delegation and almost immediately opposing the Senate version of the bill last week.

“He said forcefully that it would not work for Maryland,” Chassé said.

“We know the current system needs to be fixed but the proposals that are being considered in Congress do not work for Maryland,” Chassé said. “Congress should go back to the drawing board in an open, transparent and bipartisan fashion to craft a bill that works for all Americans. The governor has consistently said he will not support a proposal that causes Marylanders to lose health care coverage”