The debate over the cost of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka, "ObamaCare") has been obscured in Maryland by an overly-optimistic report put out by a council appointed by Governor Martin O'Malley. The real cost of this law to the taxpayers of Maryland is hard to estimate with any precision, but it will almost certainly be significant at both the state and federal level.

 Key Points:

• The governor's coordinating council assumed the state's high-risk pool will be fully funded by the federal government, contrary to the assumptions of other state governors as well as the Congressional Budget Office.

• The state's Medicaid burden under PPACA is likely to increase substantially, contrary to the rosy scenario of the governor's coordinating council.

• A round half of the "savings" found by the governor's coordinating council are not savings at all, but rather are increased tax revenue from insurance being sold in the state. This revenue estimate also rests on shaky assumptions.