Mia Mason Cares About Marylanders’ Health
M.S. Rapelyea, M.D. • October 13, 2020
The nine counties of the Eastern Shore of Maryland along with parts of Baltimore, Carroll, and Harford counties form Maryland’s First U.S. Congressional District. The representative from this First District since 2010 has been Republican Andy Harris. Now, poised to unseat Harris is Democrat Mia Mason, a 20-year military veteran who has served in the Navy, Army, and the National Guard. Mason’s goal is to restore equality and equity in our communities. She has cited a need to protect the Chesapeake Bay and to promote a green infrastructure for energy efficiency with new job sectors created. She wants to make sure rural communities are an integral part of Maryland's economy. Mason's mission is to provide and guarantee high-quality health care and make sure the system works for all Marylanders and that nobody goes bankrupt because of a medical bill.
Can President Trump’s covid diagnosis be the 'October Surprise' we so often see prior to presidential elections? Are we surprised that Trump, who rarely wears a mask or distances himself from others, has come down with covid? How ironic, that we get to see the best health care being administered to the one who said covid was a hoax. The latest and best health care that Americans need and are trying to access is freely being administered to Trump at Walter Reed Medical Center because he is the president. If and when he recovers completely and gets back to the business of the White House, the very care that he received and that we all hope for under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is to be dismantled by him and the Senate and possibly by the Supreme Court. Following suit, Rep. Harris voted to repeal the ACA with no plan to replace it. Would we be able to afford the "miracle drugs" being administered to Trump if there were no more ACA?
Mia Mason supports adding a public option to ACA. This would guarantee protections for pre-existing conditions, especially important as covid is now being considered a pre-existing condition. How ironic that this rampant pandemic blows across the country affecting Americans who need the ACA and our loyal leaders are trying to take this away, while Trump receives the "miracle drug" by IV. As front-liners gear up and enter the rooms of covid victims in our urban hospitals, will they be offering the average covid victim the cutting edge medications? We can only hope that another goal in legislation for Mason, Medicare for all, might allow these medications to be used for other Americans who have been hospitalized with covid.
While Rep. Harris has no real plan to bring down the cost of prescription drugs as well as these new, necessary medicines, Mason supports finding ways for the federal government to bring down the cost of these drugs. Why should we go broke paying for the new drugs for diseases like covid, which Trump has touted as a hoax? There are many we know who are choosing between life saving medicine and keeping their lights on or buying necessary nutritional food. Prescription drug costs must be brought down. Harris has no real plan to bring down the cost of prescription drugs and healthcare premiums. Mason believes that drug costs should be capped per year, per person, on an income basis. She thinks that drug companies should be prevented from setting outrageous "launch prices" when a new drug is introduced with no competition by allowing Medicare to set a reasonable price based on market conditions. Pricing could be reduced also by improving the supply of generic drugs. Finally, the ability of drug companies to receive tax breaks for spending money on ads should be ended.
As we muster the grit and discipline to overcome the pandemic facing us, we're also unfortunately plagued with trying to treat and win over the epidemic of the opioid crisis. Mason supports the Comprehensive Addiction Resources Emergency (CARE) Act, a comprehensive plan to end this crisis. Harris has put forth no such plan to take down this public health crisis. Under the CARE Act, resources would be used to support the whole continuum of care from early intervention for those at risk for addiction, to harm reduction for those struggling with addiction, to long-term support services for those in recovery. Along with addiction treatment, the CARE Act would ensure access to mental health services and help to provide critical wraparound services like housing support and medical transportation for those who need them.
Over the past several years we've been rallying our politicians to support and protect our hospitals. Mason sees the need to increase access to health care in rural communities such as those here on the Eastern Shore. The pattern of large hospitals merging and consolidating only makes it more difficult to access care. What's needed is increasing funding for community health care centers and investing in bringing more health care professionals to our health care deserts. The Deborah Sampson Act aims to increase health care access to women veterans through the Veteran's Administration. Harris has voted against this act and others that would improve health care access.
As well as protecting Medicare as we know it, Mason also realizes the need to protect Social Security from any cut or privatization. She will work to raise the cap on contributions so the wealthiest pay the same percentage as the rest of us. Harris promised to protect Medicare when running for office, then voted for the Ryan Budget Plan which would have effectively destroyed Medicare as we know it and forced seniors to use vouchers to pay for regular health insurance plans. He also pledged to not cut Social Security but has a 0 percent rating by the Alliance for Retired Americans (ARA) indicating a pro-privatization stance.
Mia Mason is ready to take on the important health and welfare issues for Marylanders, and we're ready to introduce her to Andy Harris's seat in Congress.
Dr. Mel Rapelyea
was born and educated in New York. He moved to Maryland in 1981 and to Betterton in 1991, after he began covering Radiology in Chestertown in 1990. He has worked with Kent County Arts Council since 1995, and organized the first Chestertown Jazz Festival in 1996. He serves on the boards of Echo Hill Outdoor School, Garfield Center of the Arts, Sultana Education Foundation, and is a member of the Kent County Democratic Central Committee.
Common Sense for the Eastern Shore
Right now, Congress is working on a fast-track bill that would make historic cuts to basic needs programs in order to finance another round of tax breaks for the wealthy and big corporations.
The House Agriculture Committee recently voted, along party lines, to advance legislation that would cut as much as $300 million from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. SNAP is the nation’s most important anti-hunger program, helping more than 41 million people in the U.S. pay for food. With potential cuts this large, it helps to know who benefits from this program in Maryland, and who would lose this assistance. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities compiled data on SNAP beneficiaries by congressional district, cited below, and produced the Maryland state datasheet , shown below. In Maryland, in 2023-24, 1 in 9 people lived in a household with SNAP benefits. In Maryland’s First Congressional District, in 2023-24: Almost 34,000 households used SNAP benefits. Of those households, 43% had at least one senior (over age 60). 29% of SNAP recipients were people of color. 15% were Black, non-Hispanic, higher than 11.8% nationally. 6% were Hispanic (19.4% nationally). There were 24,700 total veterans (ages 18-64). Of those, 2,200 lived in households that used SNAP benefits (9%). The CBPP SNAP datasheet for Maryland is below. See data from all the states and download factsheets here.
Apparently, some people think that the GOP’s “big beautiful bill” is a foregone conclusion, and that the struggle over the budget and Trump’s agenda is over and done. Not true. On Sunday night, the bill — given the alternate name “Big Bad Bullsh*t Bill” by the Democratic Women’s Caucus — was voted out of the House Budget Committee. The GOP plan is to pass this legislation in the House before Memorial Day. But that’s not the end of it. As Jessica Craven explained in her Chop Wood Carry Water column: “Remember, we have at least six weeks left in this process. The bill has to: Pass the House, Then head to the Senate where it will likely be rewritten almost completely, Then be passed there, Then be brought back to the House for reconciliation, And then, if the House changes that version at all, Go back to the Senate for another vote.” She adds, “Every step of that process is a place for us to kill it.” The bill is over a thousand pages long, and the American people will not get a chance to read it until it has passed the House. But, thanks to 5Calls , we know it includes:
Let's talk about our Eastern Shore Delegation, the representatives who are supposed to fight for our nine Shore counties in Annapolis, and what they actually got up to this session.
For the first time in recent memory, Virginia Democrats have candidates running in all 100 House of Delegates districts — a milestone party leaders and grassroots organizers say reflects rising momentum as President Donald Trump’s second term continues to galvanize opposition.
The 447th legislative session of the Maryland General Assembly adjourned on April 8. This End of Session Report highlights the work Shore Progress has done to fight for working families and bring real results home to the Shore. Over the 90-day session, lawmakers debated 1,901 bills and passed 878 into law. Shore Progress and members supported legislation that delivers for the Eastern Shore, protecting our environment, expanding access to housing and healthcare, strengthening workers’ rights, and more. Shore Progress Supported Legislation By The Numbers: Over 60 pieces of our backed legislation were passed. Another 15 passed in one Chamber but not the other. Legislation details are below, past the budget section. The 2026 Maryland State Budget How We Got Here: Maryland’s budget problems didn’t start overnight. They began under Governor Larry Hogan. Governor Hogan expanded the state budget yearly but blocked the legislature from moving money around or making common-sense changes. Instead of fixing the structural issues, Hogan used federal covid relief funds to hide the cracks and drained our state’s savings from $5.5 billion to $2.3 billion to boost his image before leaving office. How Trump/Musk Made It Worse: Maryland is facing a new fiscal crisis driven by the Trump–Musk administration, whose trade wars, tariff policies, and deep federal cuts have hit us harder than most, costing the state over 30,000 jobs, shuttering offices, and erasing promised investments. A University of Maryland study estimates Trump’s tariffs alone could cost us $2 billion, and those federal cuts have already added $300 million to our budget deficit. Covid aid gave us a short-term boost and even created a fake surplus under Hogan, but that money is gone, while housing, healthcare, and college prices keep rising. The Trump–Musk White House is only making things worse by slashing funding, gutting services, and eliminating research that Marylanders rely on. How The State Budget Fixes These Issues: This year, Maryland faced a $3 billion budget gap, and the General Assembly fixed it with a smart mix of cuts and fair new revenue, while protecting working families, schools, and health care. The 2025 Budget cuts $1.9 billion ($400 million less than last year) without gutting services people rely on. The General Assembly raised $1.2 billion in fair new revenue, mostly from the wealthiest Marylanders. The Budget ended with a $350 million surplus, plus $2.4 billion saved in the Rainy Day Fund (more than 9% of general fund revenue), which came in $7 million above what the Spending Affordability Committee called for. The budget protects funding for our schools, health care, transit, and public workers. The budget delivers real wins: $800 million more annually for transit and infrastructure, plus $500 million for long-term transportation needs. It invests $9.7 billion in public schools and boosts local education aid by $572.5 million, a 7% increase. If current revenue trends hold, no new taxes will be needed next session. Even better, 94% of Marylanders will see a tax cut or no change, while only the wealthiest 5% will finally pay their fair share. The tax system is smarter now. We’re: Taxing IT and data services like Texas and D.C. do; Raising taxes on cannabis and sports betting, not groceries or medicine; and Letting counties adjust income taxes. The budget also restores critical funding: $122 million for teacher planning $15 million for cancer research $11 million for crime victims $7 million for local business zones, and Continued support for public TV, the arts, and BCCC The budget invests in People with disabilities, with $181 million in services Growing private-sector jobs with $139 million in funding, including $27.5 million for quantum tech, $16 million for the Sunny Day Fund, and $10 million for infrastructure loans. Health care is protected for 1.5 million Marylanders, with $15.6 billion for Medicaid and higher provider pay. Public safety is getting a boost too, with $60 million for victim services, $5.5 million for juvenile services, and $5 million for parole and probation staffing. This budget also tackles climate change with $100 million for clean energy and solar projects, and $200 million in potential ratepayer relief. Public workers get a well-deserved raise, with $200 million in salary increases, including a 1% COLA and ~2.5% raises for union workers. The ultra-wealthy will finally chip in to pay for it: People earning over $750,000 will pay more, Millionaires will pay 6.5%, and Capital gains over $350,000 get a 2% surcharge. Deductions are capped for high earners, but working families can still deduct student loans, medical debt, and donations. This budget is bold, fair, and built to last. That’s why Shore Progress proudly supports it. Click on the arrows below for details in each section.
