The Five Big Fights
Billions of dollars, five wars, and the 2027 session that will decide them all
While Annapolis watches the budget hole, the biggest government-relations fights in Maryland aren't about the budget. They're about healthcare — and there are five of them, running at the same time, with billions of dollars on the table.
Fight one: the hospitals are about to lose the deal that made Maryland's system unique in America, and the state has to cut $435 million a year in Medicare spending to survive the transition. Fight two: the insurers are being handed the bill, and your premiums are going up to pay it. Fight three: the state's drug-price board just started capping what Maryland pays for Ozempic and Jardiance, and the pharmaceutical industry is calling it a threat to the state's life-sciences economy. Fight four: the developmental-disabilities community is facing its second straight year of budget cuts, and last year they filled the streets of Annapolis to stop it. Fight five: Washington just stripped Medicaid from 4,500 legal immigrants, and 320,000 more Marylanders are in the pipeline.
Every one of these fights has lobbyists, money, and a 2027 session deadline. Most of Annapolis hasn't put the five together yet.
Below the paywall: who's fighting, who's winning, where the lobbying money is going, and what January does about it.
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