Governor’s race turns attention to health care

Health care was the issue of the day in Maryland’s governor’s race last week.

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a Republican seeking re-election, announced a program that provides government-funded health care to an additional 30,000 poor Marylanders.

“Improving the health of Marylanders has been a central priority of my administration from Day One,” Mr. Ehrlich said during a visit last Monday to Jai Medical Center in Baltimore — home turf of his Democratic rival for governor, Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley.

“By dramatically expanding health care coverage for vulnerable citizens, we are building on our considerable successes in making Maryland a better and healthier place to live,” Mr. Ehrlich said. “Since we took office, we have expanded access to health care to 94,000 additional Marylanders in need.”

The Primary Adult Care program, which is paid for with state and federal funds, covers primary-care physician office visits, prescription drugs, outpatient mental health care and other limited health services for qualifying persons. The program does not cover specialty care, hospital care or emergency-room visits.

Meanwhile, Mr. O’Malley was in nearby Baltimore County that same day promising that, if elected governor, he would address the projected shortage of nurses in the state.

“We have to make sure that patient care is guided by common sense, is guided by knowledge, is guided by the nurses and doctors and not by big corporate profit lines,” he said. “Investing in our people, investing in our nurses, that is how we make the way forward.”

The state will suffer a shortage of nearly 13,000 nurses by 2010, according to the Center for Health Workforce Development at the University of Maryland in Baltimore.

Mr. O’Malley promised more nursing-school scholarships, more scholarships to train nursing-school teachers and plans to give nurses better pay and staffing policies at hospitals.

He also picked up the endorsement of Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, one of Maryland’s most liberal Democrats and an outspoken harbinger of the nursing shortfall.

“There is a nursing shortage in America. There is a nursing shortage in our [Veterans Administration] hospitals. There is a shortage of nurses right now in Iraq, and there is a shortage right here in Maryland,” Miss Mikulski said. “I can’t get the president to pay attention. In Maryland, I can’t get Bobby Ehrlich to pay attention.”

“We need new leadership,” she said. “This is not about politics. It is about patients.”

Miss Mikulski joined Mr. O’Malley at one of his campaign’s “kitchen table” stops, in which he meets with constituents around the kitchen table in the home of a supporter. Last Monday, the stop was in a home in Lutherville and included about 10 nurses.

Mr. O’Malley, who also was accompanied by his running mate, Delegate Anthony G. Brown of Prince George’s County, spent about 45 minutes listening to the nurses’ concerns about their profession.

At the event, Mr. O’Malley circulated a white paper that criticized Mr. Ehrlich for waiting until this year to introduce legislation that combines the state’s scholarship programs for nursing students and teachers. “Despite the recognized importance of this issue, no serious action has been taken,” Mr. O’Malley said.

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