New laws taking effect the first day of 2024 will bump Maryland’s minimum wage to $15 an hour for most employers, broaden insurance coverage, extend the list of counties with plastic bag bans, and attempt to rein in telemarketers.
Here’s a list of what’s coming in the new year.
‘Bring your own bag’ laws to take effect
Anne Arundel and Prince George’s counties, as well as the city of Frederick, all have plastic bag bans taking effect Jan. 1.
The law passed by the Anne Arundel County Council in June excludes the city of Annapolis from the countywide ban. In Anne Arundel, Prince George’s and Frederick, plastic bags will still be allowed for certain items like raw meat and bulk goods, such as nuts. Retailers in Anne Arundel and Prince George’s counties will have to charge a minimum of 10 cents for paper or reusable bags in most cases, though Frederick’s ordinance does not impose a fee, and Anne Arundel won’t impose the charge until Feb. 1. The Anne Arundel County law allows retailers to provide free reusable bags during certain times, such as around Earth Day.
Baltimore County’s plastic bag ban took effect Nov. 1, with a 5-cent minimum fee for paper or reusable bags. Baltimore City’s ban on single-use plastic bags took effect in 2021.
Members of SEIU 1199 union demonstrated outside the State House in Annapolis two years ago to successfully urge Maryland lawmakers to pass a bill gradually increasing the minimum wage to $15 per hour. (Baltimore Sun file).
Hourly minimum wage to hit $15
Maryland’s minimum wage will be set at $15 an hour, an increase from the current $13.25 that’s coming a year early following a push by Gov. Wes Moore.
The $15 minimum wage was originally set to take effect in 2025 as part of a gradual increase that was vetoed by former Gov. Larry Hogan, though the Maryland General Assembly’s Democratic supermajority overrode the Republican governor’s rejection immediately after. The faster minimum wage hike was a central campaign promise from Moore, a Democrat who took office in January 2023 and made the bill one of the first to receive his signature. Legislators did scale back Moore’s original plan, which would have included automatic increases tied to inflation and made the hike to $15 take effect in October.
Businesses with fewer than 15 employees had a separate minimum wage of $12.80 in 2023, but they will also be required to pay $15 an hour starting Monday.
Although the federal minimum wage has held at $7.25 per hour since 2009, more than 20 states will have increases next year — New Jersey’s will be $15.13, and California and New York City will see a bump to $16, according to The Associated Press. Virginia’s minimum wage was been $12 an hour since last year, and D.C.’s minimum wage is $17.
Medicaid to cover gender-affirming care; private insurance must cover some procedures
The Trans Health Equity Act will take effect Jan. 1, requiring Maryland’s Medicaid program to expand coverage for gender-affirming care.
The Maryland Medical Assistance Program will be prohibited from denying gender-affirming treatment based on an adult patient’s gender identity and excluding certain treatments on the basis that they are cosmetic. Under the law, transgender adults enrolled in Medicaid will be covered for treatments such as voice modification surgery and therapy, as well as certain alterations to the body, which were not previously covered by the health care program for low-income residents.
Several changes coming Jan. 1 will affect private insurers, too. One law will prevent insurers and health maintenance organizations from imposing copayments, coinsurance or deductible requirements for breast examinations. Although mammography screening is usually covered in accordance with previous rules, the new Maryland law prohibits charges for supplemental examinations, such as biopsies that are not related to an abnormality or are performed because a patient has increased risk of breast cancer. A related law also sets co-sharing rules for some imaging in lung cancer diagnosis. The new laws do allow insurers to subject the costs to deductible requirements for those with high-deductible health plans.
Another health care law will require insurers to cover biomarker testing, the process of analyzing tumors or blood samples to identify certain markers — characteristics of genes or protein expression — that could impact therapeutic decisions, especially in cancer treatment. That testing can be subject to deductibles, copayments or coinsurance, but insurers must limit those requirements to the same ones they impose on similar coverage.
The state’s Medicaid program, which was already setting guidelines for covering biomarker testing, is excluded from that requirement until 2025. On July 1 of that year, the program must cover biomarker testing for all situations in which its use is backed by evidence, including autoimmune, cardiovascular and kidney diseases, as well as behavioral health conditions.
More restrictions on telemarketers
Starting Jan. 1, phone solicitations to Maryland residents will be subject to several new restrictions.
The Stop the Spam Calls Act of 2023 prohibits solicitors from using automated dialing systems or recorded messages once calls are connected, unless they have written consent. Intentionally hiding or changing the caller’s identity and phone number is also forbidden.
The law makes exceptions for certain callers, such as nonprofits and those playing recorded messages for informational purposes only. Any violations of the new rules would be subject to civil and criminal enforcement under the Maryland Consumer Protection Act.