Maryland Health Benefit Exchange seeks $718.7 million; reinsurance, young-adult subsidies drive increase

The Health and Social Services Subcommittee heard a fiscal 2026 budget presentation on the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange (MHBE) that showed the agency’s allowance rising by $31.6 million, or 4.6 percent, to $718.7 million.

Victoria Martinez, presenting the Department of Legislative Services (DLS) budget analysis, said most of the MHBE budget—about 83 percent—covers reinsurance payments while other line items include a young-adult subsidy (4 percent), information technology (6 percent) and administration (7 percent). Martinez presented DLS’s recommended changes, including a suggested $267,000 reduction to operating expenses and language making $13 million of the young-adult subsidy contingent on legislation extending the subsidy beyond calendar 2025.

The exchange’s executive director, Miss Eberly, told the subcommittee MHBE provides enrollment services through the Maryland Health Connection platform and said the exchange had a record new enrollment of nearly 250,000 people in the 2025 plan year. “So in essence, we have a small budget on which we provide services to 1 in 5 Marylanders,” Eberly said, describing the exchange’s limited administrative funding and the larger federal…