Cardin will fight repeal of federal health care law
Senator touts prescription drug benefit
Matthew Bieniek
The Cumberland Times-News Wed Jan 05, 2011, 10:00 AM EST
— CUMBERLAND — Senior citizens in Allegany and Garrett counties will reap significant benefits from changes to Medicare that went into effect with the new year, said U.S. Sen. Benjamin Cardin, part of last year’s health care reform law titled the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. To protect those benefits, Cardin said he’ll fight hard against a Republican plan to attempt to repeal the law.
Cardin offered his take on the law and its possible repeal during a conference call on Tuesday from his Washington office, in which the Times-News participated.
“The Republican plan to repeal is hard to understand from a position of policy. I understand the politics,” Cardin said. Republicans have introduced legislation to repeal the health care law and made repeal one of their top priorities in the new Congress. “For Marylanders, the repeal of the Affordable Care Act would have a devastating effect on our seniors,” he said.
One portion of the law designed to help out seniors struggling with the high costs of prescription drugs was among the provisions that went into effect Jan. 1, he said. The changes seek to close the so-called “doughnut hole” which can hit seniors hard, Cardin said. Before the new law passed, Medicare participants had 75 percent of their medication costs paid by Medicare after an initial deductible of $310. However, once drug costs reached $2,800 in a calendar year, Medicare stopped paying for prescriptions, creating a gap until prescription costs hit $4,550, according to an article by Jonathan Blum, deputy administrator and director for the Center of Medicare at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services posted at healthcare.gov, a federal government website.
“Some people hit it within a month or two,” said Michelle Holzer, speaking about the doughnut hole. Holzer works for the Senior Health Insurance Assistance Program, Maryland Department of Aging. Cardin said about 32,000 Maryland citizens find themselves in that position each year. The new law helps fill the gap, said Cardin, by implementing a 50 percent discount on brand-name drugs prescribed by a doctor.
The new rule will provide greater benefits than the $250 rebate checks sent last year to qualifying seniors as part of a doughnut hole reimbursement, he said. “By 2020 the doughnut hole will be completely eliminated,” he said, if the law is not repealed.
The portion of the law closing the gap would benefit 944 senior citizens in Allegany County and save them more than $8 million between 2011 and 2020, according to numbers from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In Garrett County the new law would affect 338 senior citizens and save them more than $3 million over the same time period. The benefit should be calculated automatically, said Cardin, and won’t require additional paperwork by senior citizens, he said.
Seniors “will pay a real price for repeal if it goes forward,” he said. Cardin said he thought repeal unlikely, but he said his legislative experience is that sometimes bills pass when you don’t expect them to pass.
Additional provisions of the law taking effect this year include free yearly wellness exams, Cardin said.
Contact Matthew Bieniek at mbieniek@times-news.com
Moving Forward to a Clean Energy Future
Clean energy is becoming a reality in Maryland. Last month, Maryland’s first commercial scale wind energy farms officially began contributing to the state’s electric grid. The Criterion and Synergics wind projects, both in Garrett County, will together generate 120MW of clean, renewable energy—enough to power 40,000 homes.
Next week, the University of Maryland will inaugurate Maryland’s largest solar power installation, a 2.2MW facility located on their Lower Eastern Shore campus, which was built by Maryland-based SunEdison. In addition, the State of Maryland, through the Maryland Energy Administration, has provided more than 2,600 grants to Maryland residents and over 50 grants to Maryland businesses and local governments seeking to do their part to reduce our state’s dependence on costly fossil fuels by generating clean, renewable energy at home.
As a result of these efforts and Maryland’s goal to produce 20% of the state’s electricity from renewable energy by 2022, the amount of solar installed in Maryland has soared five-fold in the last two years and is expected to double again in the next six months.
Railey Realty #1 AGAIN in 2010! 16 years in a row!
Railey Realty was #1 in real estate sales in Garrett County for the 16th straight year!
Out of 290 homes that sold in 2010, Railey Realty particpated in 117 of them on the listing/seller side of the transaction and 134 on the sales/buyer side of the transaction.
Out of the 80 total lot/land sales in 2010, Railey Realty particpated in 42 of them on the listing/seller side, and 40 on the sales/buyer side of the transaction.
Another positive note: there were 33 more home sales in 2010 than 2009.
More analysis coming in the next few days…
Just Listed: 31 Reserve Dr - GA7504484
Listing # GA7504484
$3,500,000
Stunning Waterfront Home! Just completed at The Reserve at Holy Cross.”Castle Style” architecture, 8,500 sq ft of living area, 5 bedroom suites, several indoor and outdoor entertaining areas, hand crafted interior/exterior finishes & elevator access to all 3-levels. Exclusive 1.5 acre lot w/ 252 feet of frontage, great views, privacy & individual 3-slip dock system.
Survival of the Fittest - Deep Creek Lake
Finding a drink of water has been a bit of a challenge of late for those in the wildlife community, as this muskrat was observed lapping up a cold swig from frozen Deep Creek Lake this week. The little furry fellow was watched and photographed by John Mogle, Salisbury, and family, and the photo was submitted by John’s brother Tom Mogle, who resides in Cumberland. The Mogles were staying in a rental unit along old Rt. 219/Deep Creek Drive. The muskrat was spotted on the ice where the roadway crosses a small patch of the lake. “We kept tabs on the fella the entire holiday weekend,” said John Mogle. The high temperature for every day of December until this week has remained below 32 degrees Fahrenheit, but a warm-up – with some rain – if forecast for the next few days.
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Risk of shale gas drilling is miniscule - Baltimore Sun
Just shortly before Christmas, the op-ed section of this fine newspaper was used to perpetuate a message of fear and to spread half-truths regarding a real opportunity for Maryland. Del. Heather Mizeur, our esteemed colleague from Montgomery County, implied, as her central thesis, that if Maryland does not follow New York’s lead and pass a “moratorium” on a certain technique for natural gas drilling in the state, then the Chesapeake Bay would likely be set ablaze.
Putting a moratorium on natural gas drilling for fear that some may eventually find its way into the Chesapeake Bay would be akin to eliminating Maryland’s burgeoning bio-tech industry as a way to prevent bio-terrorism.
The Marcellus Shale rests under our homes, our family’s homes, and the homes of our constituents. It is not present in any other part of Maryland and is only found in Garrett and Allegany counties. Natural gas has been drilled in Garrett County since the 1950s. Though hydraulic fracturing technology has not yet been used, other more traditional methods of natural gas extraction have, to our knowledge, not caused any environmental damage. Further exploration into the Marcellus Shale could have a positive impact on our local economy by providing much needed jobs and added revenue.
For example, many of our local farmers are beginning to find they can no longer make a living selling their crops. They are often left with two options. They could either sell their land to developers, or just “keep on keeping on” and hope for the best. Yet, with increased governmental regulations and interference, these desperate farmers may never see that brighter day for which they hope.
LETTER: 'Industrialization' of ecosystem comes at great cost to our region
News-Tribune
Posted Jan 04, 2011 @ 02:13 PM
Keyser, W.Va. — Consider this for a moment: The citizens of Mineral County do indeed have a right to know the content of an agreement between themselves U.S. Wind Force over the serious matter of decommissioning industrial wind turbines. Nearby Garrett County, MD has nothing in place to adequately protect the folks from the ever-changing wind LLC’s.
The City of Cumberland is considering an offer to sell thousands of acres in its watershed.
Garrett County’s Backbone Mountain industrial wind turbine array is nearly complete, with no public safety or health protections, and a proposed mine under the Casselman River awaits local and state approvals. There is no decommissioning agreement at all and the previous commissioners refused to enact any taxpayer protections.
The City of Frostburg is providing city drinking water to Samson Resources to use for hydrofracking just outside of its watershed in an exploratory search for Marcellus Shale.
Hydrofracking is a drilling technique that, because it injects millions of gallons of water-hogging and toxic chemicals into the ground, should be done with a high level of due diligence, to include independent monitoring systems and regulations in place that secure groundwater and protect the public health and well-being.
Frostburg officials have also hired an engineering firm to see if the Piney Watershed Impoundment might also be a good place to consider hydrofracking the City’s freshwater aquifers and stream tributaries for shale gas exploration.
In all cases where it is employed, the work should be monitored by experts employed by the public, but paid for by the developer.
GC Commissioners To Attend Annual MACo Conference
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Dec. 30, 2010
Board of Garrett County Commissioners chairman Gregan Crawford and Commissioner Bob Gatto will join their counterparts from throughout the state at the Maryland Association of Counties’ (MACo) annual Winter Conference, Jan 5-7, 2011, at the Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay Hotel in Cambridge.
The conference theme is “Building a Solid Foundation,” with major emphasis on county government service delivery, especially during difficult fiscal times.
Among the topics covered in depth will be laws regarding public ethics and open meetings, requirements under Maryland state law that apply to business conducted by county officials.
Session topics will include the following:
•”Maryland’s Economic Forecast for Local Government and Its Effects on the County Budget”;
•”Local Land Use Challenges: Past, Present, and Future”;
•”Managing Fiscal Realities and the Tough Times Ahead”;
•”Local Corrections: Keeping Citizens Safe and Secure”;
•”Providing Services for the Young, Old, and Those in Between”;
•”The Future of Transportation Funding in Maryland”;
•”Making the Grade: County/School Board Roles and Relationships”; and
•”Surviving the TMDL Flood.”
Delegate Attends Pro-Sportsman's Legislative Event
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Dec. 30, 2010
Del. Wendell Beitzel and Sen. John Astle, co-chairmen of the Maryland Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus, gathered with state legislative leaders from across the nation recently at the annual National Assembly of Sportsmen’s Caucuses (NASC) Sportsman-Legislator Summit to address hunting, angling, trapping, and conservation issues in state capitals across the country.
The three-day summit of conservation, industry, and state legislative leaders was held Dec. 6–9 at the Grand Hotel Marriot in Point Clear, Ala. The theme for this year’s meeting, “Yesterday’s Heritage and Tomorrow’s Promise,” describes the mission of the NASC in building upon past successes to address the challenges of the future.
“State sportsmen’s caucuses have made significant strides in the past few years, but this meeting and the issues discussed and debated provide a valuable foundation for our future efforts to promote and protect the interests of sportsmen and women in the halls of state government,” said Rep. Mike Pitts of South Carolina, NASC executive council president.
“It is obvious from the level of support and participation of the hunting and fishing community, that everyone understands the significance of the NASC,” said Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation states director Bethany O’Donovan. “Many of the most important decisions affecting our outdoor traditions are made by state legislators; the policies they craft, debate, and enact will impact every single individual who spends time hunting, fishing, or trapping.”
Looking back - and ahead - B'more Green Blog
January 3, 2011
Looking back – and ahead
As we start a new year, it’s worth looking back at the big news of the past year – if only because many of those developments will resonate through 2011 and for years to come.
So here’s my list of the top 10 green stories of 2010:
…
4) Wind gets a push offshore, and lawsuits on land: The prospects for giant turbines eventually catching the sea breezes off the US East Coast grew last year, with pushes from the Obama administration and from states like Maryland. The Interior Department set up a “fast track” approval for offshore wind leases, and in November invited bids for placing turbines a dozen or more miles off Ocean City. The state’s first two industrial wind projects got built on Backbone Mountain in Garrett County, but conservationists filed suit alleging the turbines would harm endangered bats.
