Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley appointed six people to the state’s soon-to-be-established health benefits exchange, or insurance marketplace, which is slated to begin its work by Jan. 1.
The exchange, which is required by new federal health care mandates, will market and sell health care plans to the uninsured and small businesses that don’t already provide employees with insurance.
“Today’s announcements are important steps forward for implementation of the Affordable Care Act,” Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Secretary Joshua M. Sharfstein said Thursday.
Appointees include:
- Georges Benjamin, director of the American Public Health Association
- Lisa Dubay, senior fellow at the Urban Institute
- Darrell Gaskin, a health economist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
- Jennifer Goldberg, assistant director of advocacy for health care at the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau
- Enrique Martinez-Vidal, vice president at AcademyHealth and director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s State Coverage Initiatives program
- Thomas Saquella, former president of the Maryland Retailers Association
The nine-member board also will include Sharfstein, the Maryland Insurance Administration commissioner and the Maryland Health Care Commission director.
