Montgomery Cares cited as a 20‑year model for county-funded care as Prince George’s task force weighs options

At a virtual meeting of the Prince George’s County Health Assurance Task Force, public‑health and community clinic leaders described Montgomery Cares — Montgomery County’s 20‑year-old program for uninsured adults — and said it offers a replicable public–nonprofit model if Prince George’s secures stable funding and administrative capacity.

“Not one size does not fit all in terms of programs for the uninsured,” Sharon Zalewski, executive director of the Regional Primary Care Coalition, told the task force as she outlined differences between the two counties’ health systems and budgets. Zalewski noted that Prince George’s County’s overall budget is about $5.8 billion compared with Montgomery County’s $7.7 billion and said Prince George’s currently allocates a smaller share of its budget to health and human services.

Montgomery Cares, Leslie Graham, president and CEO of the Primary Care Coalition (PCC), said, “is a program… it is only for adults age 18 and older.” Graham described Montgomery Cares as a county‑funded program that operates as a public–nonprofit partnership in which Montgomery County provides core general‑fund support and PCC provides centralized program management, grants development, claims processing and other shared services for participating nonprofit clinics.

Why it matters: Montgomery Cares is financed out of county general funds, supplemented by state grants and other funding the PCC…