A Passionate Advocate for Health and Healthcare
My name is Lynn Mortoro and a fairly new member of St Anne's. Glenn and I have been attending for 9 years.
I am a retired nurse. I worked most of my career in CT. I did home visits for many years, including Hospice for about 4 years. I then moved to an Oncology Clinic where I administered chemotherapy, did teaching and moved into the Research Department in the office.
I had varied experiences during this time, learned so much about life and learned to respect and accept people where they were. Differences in race, culture, income, poor and rich, education, little or none and valued them all. Amazing people in difficult times in their lives.
I came to MEPPN (Maryland Episcopal Public Policy Network) through 2 people in church who said that they needed help with legislation. It's been wonderful and enriching. I've been able to work on testimony for health related topics and relate it to my faith.
When I look at legislation, I try to see how it will affect the community I live in, looking at all the neighbors and their environments. How will it help or hurt them. I look for position statements from the Episcopal Church to use in my written or oral testimony if I'm writing in the name of the Diocese. I take that responsibility very seriously.
There were some good bills that came up. Allowing anyone to purchase health insurance made so much sense to me. Helps to keep the community safe. Others, when I read them carefully, I realized that they were taking away rights that we had, especially in women's health and choices. Those bills did not move forward.
During the Social Justice Day, Vincent DeMarco of Healthcare for All, shared that Medicaid now has a working clause in it, which is causing a lot of confusion on how to track this requirement. It would impact about 20% of those on Medicaid. Most people on Medicaid are already working and still meet the requirements.
Where there will be a big problem is the ACA, the Affordable Care Act. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies, which have been in place since the pandemic, will be pretty much eliminated by 2027. The cost of policies have already doubled in some states, because the healthy adults who are struggling are cancelling their policies leaving only the people who are incurring high costs due to illness, etc. to pay.
Maryland has a plan to keep the ACA subsidies in place during 2026 at least. It is vital for everyone who is on ACA insurance stays on it, and if they are not on it, to sign up before the deadline of January 15.
The more people on health insurance, the better and the healthier our society will all be. It follows with the Gospel teachings about caring for neighbors and those unlike ourselves.
Another area we discussed was vaccinations. It is frightening and horrifying to me that we are having any of these discussions. The thoughts of polio and measles running rampant again is tragic. Babies and immunocompromised people who have weakened immune systems will be at increased risk for severe illness or death. Maryland has just joined the North East Coalition to work on vaccine recommendations. this issue. I hope that they expand into more areas.
It will be a very busy and stressful legislative session. Everyone will be trying to stretch the dollars where they can. There are so many issues to be addressed.
Fr. Manoj is extremely supportive of the work that MEPPN does and of our sharing with you.
Please don't hesitate to ask any of us questions or give suggestions. We are very interested in having an open dialogue and want to engage in a conversation.
Thank you
Lynn Mortoro, St. Anne’s MEPPN team