Health insurance brokers in Maryland

• 255,612Marylanders enrolled during open enrollment for 2026, up about 3 percent
• 177,000+Marylanders receiving state premium assistance on top of any federal help
• $0the fee for having a Maryland licensed broker compare your plans

Maryland grew when most states shrank

During open enrollment for 2026, 255,612 Marylanders signed up through Maryland Health Connection, up about 3 percent. Over the same stretch, the governor's office notes, HealthCare.gov states saw enrollment fall about 9.2 percent. Premiums rose in Maryland too, about 13.4 percent on average for 2026, so the difference is not that coverage got cheaper here. It is that Maryland paid part of the increase itself.

The state programs doing the work

That sits on top of two older programs. Maryland has a young adult subsidy, created in 2022, and more than 74 percent of enrollees aged 18 to 37 qualified for it this year. And Maryland runs a reinsurance program under a federal waiver approved through 2028, which the state credits with keeping full price premiums here low compared with the rest of the country.

The practical upshot is that the price a Maryland shopper sees can be very different from what a friend in another state pays for similar coverage. It is also why advice you read online, written for HealthCare.gov states, often does not fit Maryland.

Maryland makes it easy to start, and easy to slip

Maryland has a feature worth knowing about: the Easy Enrollment checkbox on your state tax return. Check it and the Comptroller shares your household size and income with Maryland Health Connection, which then mails you a letter about what you may qualify for. It is a genuinely good idea and worth using.

Starting is not the same as staying covered, though. Maryland Health Connection lost about 8 percent of its enrollees between January and March of this year, roughly 18,000 people. The fix is unglamorous: an income estimate that holds up, and a premium you can still pay in April. That is most of what I do with a Maryland client.

Short term plans are not a workaround in Maryland

Some people who get priced out go looking for a short term medical plan. In Maryland those plans are limited by law to less than three months and cannot be renewed, and they are not required to cover outpatient prescription drugs or maternity care. For almost everyone, the marketplace with Maryland's subsidies applied is the better place to look first, and it is where I will point you.

What changes for 2027

No major carrier has announced it is leaving the Maryland individual market for 2027. What moves is price. Full price premiums are rising again, with an average increase of about 14.6 percent approved. If you receive state or federal premium help, your recalculated subsidy usually absorbs much of that, which is why updating your 2027 income estimate matters more than the headline number.

Open enrollment dates for 2027 coverage in Maryland

Maryland runs its own state based exchange, Maryland Health Connection, and sets its own calendar. Its standing rule is a little different from the federal one: you have until December 31, not December 15, to enroll for coverage starting January 1. Maryland has not published a separate 2027 calendar that I could confirm, so treat the dates below as expected and check Maryland Health Connection before relying on them.

• November 1, 2026Open enrollment expected to begin for 2027 coverage
• December 31, 2026Expected deadline to enroll for coverage starting January 1, 2027
• January 15, 2027Expected close of open enrollment, with coverage starting February 1

Outside that window you need a qualifying life event, such as losing job based coverage, moving, marriage, a new baby, or aging off a parent's plan at 26, which usually opens a 60 day special enrollment period. If your household qualifies for Medicaid or the Maryland Children's Health Program, you can enroll any time of year, and Maryland Health Connection handles that application too.

Every 2027 change in Maryland, carrier by carrier →

How to choose a health insurance broker in Maryland

Anyone can put "broker" on a website. These are the questions that separate the real ones, and you can ask every one of them in a five minute phone call.

1. Verify the license before anything else

   Ask for the license number and the NPN, then look them up yourself. Maryland agents can be checked through the Maryland Insurance Administration producer search, and every agent in the country is searchable through the NAIC lookup. An agent who hesitates to give you those numbers has told you everything you need to know. Mine are on this page and on my license page.

2. Ask whether they are independent or captive

   A captive agent works for one insurance company and can only sell you that company's plans. An independent broker is appointed with many carriers and compares across them. Neither is dishonest, but only one of them can tell you when a competitor has the better plan for you.

3. Ask what it costs, and be suspicious of any answer other than nothing

   Brokers are paid by the insurance carriers. The premium is identical whether you enroll through a broker, on your own, or directly with the carrier. Nobody should charge you a fee to enroll you in an individual marketplace plan.

4. Ask how many carriers they can actually quote

   "We shop the whole market" is a slogan until someone puts a number on it. Ask which carriers they are appointed with in Maryland, and ask them to show you the comparison rather than describe it.

5. Ask whether they will still be there in March

   Plenty of agents are enthusiastic in December and unreachable in the spring, which is exactly when a claim gets denied or a doctor turns out to be out of network. Ask who you call when something goes wrong. The answer should be a person, not a call center.

6. Read the reviews, and look at the dates

   A handful of genuine reviews spread over time tells you more than a wall of them that all landed in the same week. Mine are on my Google profile and they arrived one at a time, from clients who agreed to write one.

What working with me looks like

You tell me your ZIP code, who needs coverage, and roughly what you expect to earn this year. I check your subsidy eligibility properly, then compare the plans you qualify for side by side, with the real monthly cost after any subsidy is applied. You pick. I handle the enrollment paperwork, and I stay your point of contact afterward for claims questions, renewals, and life changes.

Most first conversations take about ten minutes. There is no cost and no obligation, and I am not going to pressure you into a plan, because a client who was pushed into the wrong coverage is a client who leaves.

Where I work in Maryland

Statewide. Most of my work happens over the phone or a video call, so where you are in Maryland changes nothing about the process.

• Baltimore
• Columbia
• Germantown
• Silver Spring
• Waldorf
• Frederick
• Ellicott City
• Glen Burnie
• Gaithersburg
• Rockville
• Bethesda
• Towson
• Dundalk
• Bowie
• Annapolis
• Hagerstown
• Salisbury
• College Park
• Laurel
• Cumberland

I am also licensed in 30 other states, so if you are moving or splitting time between two states, that usually is not a problem either.

Who I help most in Maryland

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 6.3 percent of people in Maryland had no health insurance in 2024, below the national rate of 8.2 percent.

Individuals and families buying their own coverage, self employed people and 1099 contractors, small business owners, people who just lost employer coverage, and early retirees bridging the gap to Medicare. In Maryland I spend a lot of time making sure people actually receive the state help they qualify for, because stacking the federal credit, the state premium assistance and the young adult subsidy correctly is where the real savings are.