You can still get a nationwide PPO in Maryland through me. Here is how agents in Montgomery County, many of whom sell across the line in DC and Virginia, choose between Maryland Health Connection and a private plan.
Hi, I'm Sam Jaber. I'm a licensed broker in Tampa with licenses in 36 states, and Maryland agents can settle their coverage with me over the phone.
Picture an agent who lives in Silver Spring and carries licenses in Maryland, DC and Virginia, which isn't unusual around the Beltway. One week she's listing a rambler in Wheaton, the next she's showing condos on 14th Street and a townhouse in Arlington. Her clients move across those lines all the time, and so does she. Her brokerage pays her at closing and leaves health insurance to her. As a Maryland resident she shops on Maryland Health Connection, and most of what it sells is HMOs.
Montgomery County has 43 individual medical plans on Maryland Health Connection for 2026: 39 HMOs and 4 PPOs. Maryland is unusual in one way. Its marketplace plans cost the same in all four of the state's rating areas. So the PPO's markup is the same everywhere: at age 40, before any subsidy, the least expensive silver PPO costs 64% more than the least expensive silver HMO, and 48% more than its own insurer's least expensive silver HMO.
You can still get a nationwide PPO in Maryland through me as well, a private plan priced on your health, whose network counts doctors in DC and Virginia the same as doctors in Bethesda.
Maryland Health Connection bases your credit on household income for the coverage year, up to four times the federal poverty level. For an agent, that's commission after splits, desk and franchise fees, MLS and association dues, three licenses' worth of renewals, marketing and the drive between jurisdictions. At the low end, Maryland's Medicaid expansion covers adults up to 138% of the poverty level, according to KFF.
Full prices rose more gently here than in much of the country this year. KFF's benchmark silver premium for a 40-year-old in Maryland was up 13.4% from 2025 to 2026.
Buy on Maryland Health Connection; the credit works only there. Because the credit is tied to a benchmark silver plan, it doesn't grow with a pricier plan, so the PPO's 64% markup would come out of your commission. For most agents in the credit range, the better buy is an HMO whose network includes your doctors. The catch around the Beltway is that an HMO generally pays outside its network only in an emergency, so check whether the urgent care near your DC or Virginia listings is in it.
Next step: Send me your doctors and last year's net, and I'll show you which Montgomery County HMOs keep them, credit included.
Past the credit range, you pay full price, and on Maryland Health Connection the PPO is the costliest way to keep a broad network. Healthy agents often go private at this point. The application asks health questions, and the answer is approval, approval with a specific condition excluded, or a decline. In good health, the premium often comes in below the marketplace's full rate, on a network that covers all three jurisdictions you sell in and the rest of the country. Each plan spells out its own benefits, and we read them together.
Next step: Call me and I'll lay a nationwide PPO quote beside Maryland Health Connection's full prices for your household.
If anyone on your plan has a chronic condition or a regular specialist, stay with Maryland Health Connection even at full price. Its plans can't turn anyone away or charge more for health. The task is to find the network that keeps your specialists, whether they're at a Bethesda practice, a DC hospital or across the river.
Next step: List your doctors and prescriptions, and I'll narrow the Maryland plans to the ones that cover them.
When rates jump and buyers wait, a year can thin out fast. If your honest estimate lands near the poverty line, Maryland's Medicaid may be the right coverage for now; when closings return, report it and move back to a marketplace plan.
Next step: Before you renew in a slow year, call me and we'll work out where your household's income really falls.
Maryland Health Connection's open enrollment runs November 1 to January 15. Enroll by December 31 and coverage starts January 1.
Straight answers, no sales pitch.
Yes, but the least expensive silver PPO costs 64% more than the least expensive silver HMO, the same in every part of the state.
Only if that doctor is in the plan's network, or in an emergency.
By December 31, during open enrollment, which runs November 1 to January 15.
Yes. Healthy agents can buy one privately through me.
Your county, the people on your plan, and roughly what you kept from last year's commissions after splits and fees. With that I'll price Maryland Health Connection and a private nationwide PPO for you and say which I'd pick.
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