Hi. I'm Delegate Kirill Reznik. Welcome back to my weekly video blog for the week of March 22th updating you on what is happening here, in Annapolis, during the 2010 General Assembly Session.
This week a bill Delegate Montgomery and myself are sponsoring, House Bill 1391, had its hearing in the House Ways and Means Committee. This piece of legislation would require the State Department of Education, in collaboration with several organizations, to develop a program addressing the issue of concussions in school sports. The program would increases the awareness of concussion by training coaches, school personnel, student-athletes, and parents about the risks of a concussion, the criteria for return to play, and the possible ramification of not reporting a concussion.
As the 2010 legislative session begins to wind down, weve spent a lot of time debating and voting on very important legislation on the house floor. I want to highlight a few bills that I think are particularly important and were discussed in the House this week.
House Bill 472 is a foreclosure mediation bill that would require that an application for loan modification and mitigation be sent to all homeowners 45 days before a foreclosure action is filed, along with information on programs and counseling help.
A companion bill would put homeowners and condo associations ahead of banks in priority for up to 4 months of bank dues in a foreclosure proceeding, helping to keep HOAs solvent in these tough economic times.
We've also taken up House Bill 1125 today on stormwater management and regulations on water runoff to help protect the Chesapeake Bay. Though the original bill was opposed by many in the environmental community, multiple amendments in committee have created a compromise between the environmental community and the business community.
After a lot of debate and work by my colleagues on the Judiciary Committee it finally looks like we will be able to pass new, updated child support guidelines for the first time in nearly 20 years.
Finally, Id like to end by mentioning how excited I am that our country has finally passed real healthcare reform. The bill is not perfect no legislation is but it has put us light years ahead in terms of helping reform health care delivery and payment in our Country. Much of the bill will be implemented in stages between now and 2014, and I will place a document on my website to outline that implementation in the next few days. I did want to point out a few of the immediate changes that you should know about:
•Health insurers can no longer deny coverage to children for pre-existing conditions;
•Businesses with fewer than 50 employees will be provided a subsidy of up to 50% to help purchase insurance for their employees;
•Seniors will get a rebate to fill the "donut hole" in Medicare drug coverage;
•The cut-off age for young adults to continue to be covered by their parents' health insurance rises to the age 27;
•Lifetime caps on the amount of insurance an individual can have will be banned. Annual caps will be limited, and banned in 2014;
•A temporary high-risk pool will be set up to cover adults with pre-existing conditions. Health care exchanges will eliminate the program in 2014;
•Insurance companies can no longer practice rescission which cuts someone off from coverage when he or she gets sick.
There are many other benefits, and I hope you look over the document once it goes up.
That's it for this weeks update. Please feel free to contact my office if you have questions or concerns dealing with these issues or any other issues before the General Assembly.
Thank you for tuning in and I look forward to briefing you again next week.
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Reznik Report 2010 Session Week 9by KirillReznik75 views
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