© Ovetta Wiggins/The Washington Post Authorities lead away protesters who chanted “Healthcare for all” on the marble steps of the Maryland State House in Annapolis on Friday.
The protesters — later detained by police — who occupied the stone steps of the Annapolis State House on Friday morning to demand health care for undocumented people want lawmakers to know Santos Romeo’s name.
So in the waning days of a legislative session where a bill to extend care sputtered, organizers long focused on the issue amplified their message. As senators arrived for final talks before the session ends Monday, the group of protesters chanted “Healthcare for all,” while carrying signs that included a tribute to Romeo, an undocumented woman who they said died of diabetes complications earlier this year.
Within minutes, four officers handcuffed the protesters, whose voices filled the air as arriving lawmakers sidestepped the incident or swung to a basement entrance to avoid the demonstration. Nick Cavey, a spokesman for the Maryland Capitol Police, said seven people were charged with refusing to leave a public building and for failing to obey an order from police to move their protest.
The proposal at issue would allow undocumented immigrants to buy health insurance through the state exchange, a policy change that state analysts predict would lead to coverage for about one-third of the state’s undocumented population, or 82,500 people. The move would add Maryland to a small number of states targeting the group in an effort to shore up gaps in health care access — a goal that has faced head winds in Congress.
Supporters say the proposal dovetails with Gov. Wes Moore’s goal of eliminating child poverty and would reduce overall premiums and care provided by hospitals free of charge to the uninsured. But instead of passing a bill that would open the insurance marketplace, which would require a federal waiver, lawmakers instead approved legislation that calls for the Maryland Health Department and the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange to study options for undocumented immigrants’ health care needs to guide their work moving forward.
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“One of the things we don’t want to do is put the cart ahead of the horse,” Senate Finance Chairwoman Melony Griffith (D-Prince George’s) said last week. “We want to make sure we are addressing the needs of our most vulnerable in a way that we can afford so that we don’t set unintended consequences into motion or overburden the state’s fiscal resources.”
The state estimates expanding coverage eligibility would cost $550,000 in fiscal year 2025 for initial implementation costs and $250,000 a year for at least three years after that.
Ninfa Amador-Hernandez, a CASA research and policy analyst, said there is already sufficient data to show opening the exchange would be an appropriate first step toward coverage for 275,000 uninsured immigrants in Maryland. Plans cost about $800 a month for a family of four without subsidies, she said.
The District, Washington state, Massachusetts and New York City have programs to expand insurance eligibility, she said.
“This action was needed because of the inaction of the Senate leadership to make sure this bill is prioritized and on its way to pass. We haven’t heard any reassurance that this bill is prioritized,” she said in a phone interview Friday.
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Jossie Flor Sapuna, a spokeswoman for CASA Maryland, said the protesters included a 22-year-old woman who risked arrest to remember her father, Edgar, who died during the coronavirus pandemic.
“I risk arrest for him and Marylanders like him who don’t have health insurance. I honor my dad with this sacrifice,” said Emely Deleon, a CASA organizer from Baltimore City.
The demonstrators were all U.S. citizens, said Flor Sapuna, adding that they had less to fear from the cascading impacts of a potential arrest than people whose immigration status is in question.
The protest came one week after CASA held a rally in Annapolis to urge Senate action on the bill and highlight women who shared stories about the toll of living without insurance.
Then, Jeanette Kenne, 60, sat on the marble stone in front of the State House nursing a wound on her calf as demonstrators marched and chanted in Spanish and English, imploring lawmakers to act.
Kenne, an undocumented immigrant from Cameroon, said she doesn’t see a doctor because she is uninsured. She has a mountain of medical bills from her visits to the emergency room, the place she lands when her natural remedies don’t ease her pain.
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“Sickness does not discriminate, it does not care about your immigration status,” she told the crowd waving pink, yellow and neon green signs that read: “How can we fight cancer without health care” and “Our families are dying.”
Kenne, who lives in an apartment in Takoma Park, came to the United States 20 years ago and has worked as a truck driver, house cleaner and health care provider for homebound patients, she said. But in recent years her deteriorating health has limited her ability to work.
Her health troubles began 16 years ago when she learned she had blood clots in her lung. Now, she said, she has a calcified granuloma that makes it difficult to carry things or stand for long periods. She also developed a leg ulcer and has had pneumonia as well as diabetes.
Without a doctor, she learned of all her conditions in an emergency room.
“Actually Google is my doctor,” she said. “When I’m having issue, I just go to Google and Google will tell me what to do naturally.”
Three weeks ago, she said, she nearly passed out while at a food bank and was rushed to the hospital where she spent eight hours. The hospital staff gave her paperwork to fill out, she said, but she doesn’t have the documents needed to apply for assistance.
