Finding the best Baltimore health insurance is an issue in Baltimore for many reasons. Baltimore is the largest city in Maryland and is located in the north center of the state. Baltimore population alone is over 636,000 people and more than 2 ½ million people reside in the Baltimore Metropolitan Area. The Johns Hopkins Hospital is located in Baltimore and is scheduled to become the center of a new biotechnology park currently underway. Despite Baltimore’s HealthCare Access for no cost and low cost Baltimore health insurance, protestors are organizing sit-downs to voice their opinions on health reform.

Baltimore Health Insurance at The John Hopkins Hospital

John Hopkins was a Baltimore philanthropist who died in 1873, bequeathing his $7 million fortune to the founding of two organizations, The John Hopkins Hospital and The John Hopkins University. Both institutions were built in Baltimore and have become the cornerstone of American medicine.

If you are going to be admitted into The John Hopkins Hospital, you should review your health insurance policy to verify coverage of your anticipated services. If your health plan requires a primary health care provider, you will need a referral in order to be admitted. Depending on your policy, you may be required to pay your deductible or co-payment at the time of your admission. For patients expecting an extended stay you may have to pay an admission deposit.

Since contracts for managed care health plans can change at different times, you should check to see if your insurance company has a contract with The John Hopkins Hospital, The John Hopkins University, or the John Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.

Some insurance companies with contracts may include:

4Most Health Network PPO, Aetna, Amerigroup Maryland, Beech Street PPO, Care First Blue Choice, CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield, CIGNA HealthCare, CIGNA Healthcare National, Coventry Healthcare of Delaware, Coventry Healthcare, Inc., EHP, First Health Network, Geisinger Health Plan, Great West Healthcare, Health America of Pennsylvania HMO, Health Assurance, Hopkins ElderPlus, Humana Choice Care Network PPO, InforMed/CHIP Health Plan, Jai Medical Systems MCO, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Mid-Atlantic, MAMSI (United Healthcare), Maryland Physicians Care MCO, Multiplan PPO, National Capital PPO, One Net PPO, Pennsylvania Preferred Health Networks, Preferred Health Care, Prime Source Health Network, Priority Partners MCO, Private Healthcare Systems PPO, South Central Preferred PPO, Tricare HealthNet, Tricare Uniformed Services Family Health Plan, United Healthcare, and Western Maryland.

Low Cost and No Cost Baltimore Health Insurance

Baltimore HealthCare Access, Inc. (BHCA) was founded in 1997 as an agency of the Baltimore City Health Department. Originally established to aid in the transition from Medicaid (fee for service) to HealthChoice (managed care), the department currently offers health education and outreach programs as well as assistance in determining eligibility for various programs.

HealthChoice Basics is the Medicaid Managed Care Program that began statewide in Maryland in 1997. Benefits include clinic services, dental care, home health care, hospital care for inpatients and outpatients, lab work and x-rays, medical supplies, nursing home, physician care, and prescription drugs. It also covers EPSDT, which applies to services for children for early and periodic screening, diagnosis, and treatment. If you are eligible for Medicaid or MCHP, you may be able to enroll in HealthChoice. Currently Amerigroup, Coventry Diamond Plan, MedStar Family Choice, Jai Medical Systems, Maryland Physicians Care, Priority Partners, and United HealthCare are health plan participants.

The Maryland Children’s Health Program (MCHP) and MCHP Premium are programs available to uninsured children under the age of nineteen and pregnant women based on income eligibility. The income limits vary for pregnant women from $36,400 to $55,100 based on a family size of two to four people. Children are eligible for the No Cost Program if the income limits are from $29,000 to $44,100 based on a family size ranging from two to four respectively. Children with family sizes from two to four and an income from $43,700 to $66,200 qualify for the Low Cost Program, which is the MCHP Premium that goes through HealthChoice.

HealthChoice, MCHP, and MCHP Premium are only some of the programs offered through Baltimore HealthCare Access, Inc. Their outreach programs extend to the homeless, immigrants, and addicts. They also recently started Project HEALTH to provide resources to people for adult education, child care, employment food assistance, health insurance, housing, job training, public benefits, special education, and utility assistance.

Baltimore Health Insurance Protest

Despite the efforts of Baltimore HealthCare Access, Inc. to provide no income and low income health insurance options to its residents, a protest took place on October 29, 2009 outside of the CareFirst Insurance Company in Baltimore. The protest was part of a nationwide effort that took place in 20 cities to show support of a single-payer health care plan. The protest was organized by the Center for the Working Poor, Healthcare-NOW!, Mobilization for Health Care for All, and Prosperity Agenda.

The protestors are organizing sit-ins with the intention of catching legislative ears. They believe that doctors and patients should be part of the health care reform instead of lobbyists for the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies. These organizations are demanding a health care system that would be similar to other countries with a single-payer-type system.

While making health insurance available to low income individuals and families is necessary, there are many other people with moderate incomes who are also unable to find affordable Baltimore health insurance. The protest was also aimed to call attention to insurance companies for denying health care and delaying treatments that are recommended by physicians. Patients are not the only ones involved in these protests as physicians are also demanding quality health care for their patients without the need to fight insurance companies.

Living in Baltimore gives you access to some of the nation’s top medical professionals from John Hopkins University. Many of the doctors and hospitals work with multiple insurance companies, including ones that work with the managed care plans offered through the state. It is still too early to tell what is going to happen with the Health Reform that is being developed, but in the meantime it is still important to have some form of Baltimore health care coverage.

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