Instead of accepting the federal Medicaid expansion under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or rejecting it outright, Governor Tom Corbett officially moved forward on a hybrid plan Friday that unsurprisingly, Democrats don’t like.
Corbett’s plan, called HealthyPA, doesn’t use federal funds to expand Medicaid. Instead it uses the funding to offer subsidies on the private health care market. It eliminates most copays and reduces premium costs for those that would have been eligible under the federal Medicaid expansion. The proposal also requires enrollees to fulfill work search requirements and engage in health measures, including regular physical exams.
HealthyPA was proposed back in September, but the Corbett administration announced this week that it is formally moving forward with the plan by filing Waiver 1115 with the federal Department of Health and Human Services.
The plan has been met with popular approval. The American Cancer Society surveyed Pennsylvanians and asked respondents whether they supported a HealthyPA type plan or the Medicaid expansion as a combined option, or opposed to both. Support for any sort of expansion in access to subsidized health insurance was 65% to 25% in favor.
But Democrats contends the plan will not adequately provide coverage for the targeted population. His 8 would-be opponents have all criticized the move.
The state party accused Corbett of rejecting a Medicaid expansion entirely.
“Corbettcare is an out-of-touch health care plan that focuses more on playing politics than providing quality, affordable health insurance to all Pennsylvanians. Corbett’s proposal will reduce benefits, create obstacles, and increase costs for the the Commonwealth’s most-vulnerable,” PA Dems spokesman Marc Eisenstein said. “We’re not surprised considering Governor Corbett’s record on health care. He has kicked 90,000 children off of Medicaid, expelled 40,000 Pennsylvanians off of adultBasic, and slashed $84 million dollars from social services funding.”
While Corbett’s plan doesn’t expand Medicaid, it does accept federal funds and provide subsidies for individuals and families living in poverty.
Pennsylvania Health Access Network released a statement that supported the plan, but condemned its timeline; the Corbett proposal doesn’t take effect until January 2015. PHAN is a statewide coalition of groups interested in reforming the private insurance provider system to expand care to the uninsured and keep medical costs affordable.
“Expanding coverage right away will not only protect hundreds of thousands of low-income Pennsylvanians who will finally have access to stable, affordable health coverage, it will also generate $522 million in state budget savings in 2014 and keep us on track to create 35,000 new, good-paying jobs across the Commonwealth,” PHAN Director Antoinette Kraus said. “Delaying by a year will mean much needed revenue to our state lost and another year Pennsylvanians will be forced to gamble with their economic and physical health.”
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8 Responses
http://www.keystonepolitics.com/2013/12/health-insurance-its-not-like-welf
are/ Dear Jon Geeting: Have you ever met an African-American welfare Queen? You do realize our President is the EVIL BLACK MAN? This proposal is to give Acting Governor John Brabender and Rob Gleason a chance to run the Evil Black Man’s picture next to the DEM nominee. This allows the Tom Corbett team to yell NIGGA NIGGA and scare the white folks in the Tee!!! You can’t get away with saying Obama will rape your white women anymore but if you can put his picture up in ad denouncing his healthcare policy, then the effect is just about the same. Mr. Geeting: Don’t confuse your honest questions about healthcare policy with this blatant cynical attempt to play the race card one more time.
I just found out that PA’s non-expansion of medicaid will very possibly be the difference between our being able to pay our mortgage and stay in our home and having to sell and move into an apartment. My wife lost her job due to health problems and I was downsized, am now self-employed making maybe 2/3 of what I did before. We would have been eligible for medicaid assistance. Thanks, Tom. I ‘ll be doing everything I can to not get you re-elected. And how selective was that poll? Every poll I’ve heard about shows Pennsylvanians preferring medicaid expansion to Corbett’s plan by a large majority.
Corbett wants to help the working poor but not that much. Let me make my point clear. This is not a serous plan. It is cover for the Corbett Campaign team to run ads showing OUR MOST EVIL AND FEARED BLACK MAN next to Blue-eyed Tea Party Tom Corbett. This is not policy; it is cover to attempt once again for Brabender and Gleason to scare the BJesus out of the WHITE FOLK! http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/12/minimum_wage_increase_t
om_corb.html#incart_m-rpt-1
Am I missing something, Brittany? Your article seems to say that, according to an ACS survey, Pennsylvanians support Corbett’s plan. But I read your previous article and the survey itself, as linked from that article, and the survey says nothing about Corbett’s so-called “Healthy PA” plan, only that a solid majority support medicare expansion under the federal plan.
JON MICEK: Wrote a wonderful piece on Racism in PA. Here is an excerpt about a call he got about Mandela and Obama: The call, he told me was about “Nelson Mandela. He was a great man – but also, ok, he was a great man and he helped the blacks over in Africa, ok, let’s leave it at that. He’s a Communist. He’s like our president. He’s a Communist, a Socialist, a Progressive, a Liberal, a liar.”
Obama’s offenses against the country (Obamacare, the stimulus) were so grievous, he claimed, that Obama should be impeached and deported — though he wasn’t entirely clear on the destination. Chicago, perhaps?
While stressing he wasn’t a racist, the caller went on to make an a disturbing reference to African-Americans and added:
“… Now you might be outraged at this, what I’m saying. Look at the Asians and other groups of people which the Democrats like to put into groups. Look how they act. They have the highest percentage of crime.
“All that most of them want is reparations or to get even with whitey. So not only that, the government is what destroyed the black family by giving the black mother and kids all this welfare and, uh, being their daddy rather than having the real father in the home.
“So why doesn’t the black community get some leaders rather than Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton and these race-baiters to lead these people to become a great group of people. I doubt it will happen because it’s more profitable for them to be against whitey.”
We delete many more comments like this from the PennLive forums every day. So when people ask me why I take #HBGNext so seriously and want it to succeed, it’s to make sure that this kind of not-at-all “quiet racism” is silenced forever. MY POINT TO MR. MICEK IS THAT IN 2014 RACISM WON’T BE QUIET. TOM CORBETT AND ACTING GOVERNOR JOHN BRABENDER HAVE ONE PLAY TO RUN AND THEY WILL RUN IT NON-STOP!!! http://www.keystonepolitics.com/2013/07/the-pa-republican-partys-leadershi
p-needs-to-quit-race-based-politics/
Why is PA Governor Tom Corbett pushing this plan? Is he trying to convince working soccer Moms in Montgomery County that he is compassionate and cares about them and their family, when the next day his good friend and politically ally Bob Kerns allegedly try to date rapes his married co-worker? Is the plan to appease Jeff Romoff, CEO of UPMC and his COS Gromis-Baker’s husband’s employer? Or is it simply to give acting Governor Brabender and PAGOP’s Rob Gleason cover when they yell NIGGA NIGGA and try to scare the white folk? Maybe it’s all of the above? http://www.philly.com/philly/news/nation_world/20131207_Health_analysts_question_Corbett_s_plan_for_uninsured.html#0bJEbgvJSeu6rdz2.03
Again (I repeat myself when under stress) as stated on a previous post that got hijacked….As I think of The Simpsons and their long list of characters, it occurs to me that Tom Corporate would fit right into the cartoon. He and his long list of blunders and arrogant greed confirm that truth is stranger than fiction. Corbett is by far the worst American politician of my lifetime, possible the free world! This is just my humble opinion. What say you?
Tom Corbett’s Medicaid charade will cost Pennsylvania $10 million in federal assistance daily that should be going to insure 7000,000 Pennsylvanians who will remain uncovered. $10 million daily that would create 40,000 good-paying jobs.
http://tinyurl.com/kx4dya4