League of Women Voters of Maryland

The League of Women Voters of Maryland has consistently supported legislation to improve access to health care for all Marylanders. In 1990 the League of Women Voters of the United States initiated a study of health care systems in the United States. At that time, the consensus of the national membership was that there was an urgent need for a universal health care system. Now, 17 years later, we are still struggling with the same – or worse – circumstance of lack of health care access for the most vulnerable in our State. We applaud the effort of this legislation to address this issue in a limited way. In recent years, the League of Women Voters has not supported an increase in tobacco tax to support health care reform, because we recognize that this revenue is a purposefully diminishing funding source. However, based on the critical need for funding, and our position of tax policy being compatible with social policy, the League of Women Voters of Maryland now supports this tax. We would also support an increase in the alcohol tax which hasn’t been raised since 1972, and suggest that legislative consideration be given to this additional revenue source.