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 Clock
is Ticking on Health Care...
Action
Needed Now
With the blistering hot temperatures of
a Philadelphia summer, unbearably high
gasoline prices, and the rising
cost-of-living, the last thing
hard-working Pennsylvanians should have
to worry about is how to afford quality
health care.
Unfortunately they have been
thinking about this for entirely too
long. The clock is ticking on the
legislature to enact a major health-care
expansion plan.
In March, Senator Jay Costa and I
introduced a health-care proposal that
would make about 513,000 uninsured
Pennsylvanians eligible for health
coverage.
 The proposal, the Pennsylvania Access to
Basic Care (PA ABC) plan, would extend
subsidized health coverage to about
80,000 on the state’s adultBasic program
waiting list. All told, if the plan
were put into effect an estimated
272,000 Pennsylvanians would receive
health care assistance.
PA ABC would significantly improve and
expand the state’s already successful
adultBasic program. It would also add
coverage for behavioral health services
and prescription drugs under adultBasic.
The plan would be funded with state and
federal money and individual premiums.
Funding sources in the bill include:
-
Available balances from the Health Care
Provider Retention account, after
funding has been provided for Mcare
abatements and unfunded liability
-
Existing Tobacco Settlement Fund and
Community Health Reinvestment Funds that
currently support the adultBasic program
-
Premiums paid by individuals and
employers for PA ABC health care
coverage
-
Federal Medicaid matching funds
-
Additional revenues deposited in the
Supplemental Assistance Funding Account,
which is at least $120 million in the
first year of the program.
In addition, PA ABC includes $42 million
in grants for certain small businesses
that already provide health-care
coverage. Small businesses with
two to 50
employees would be eligible for PA ABC
if the average salary of all employees
is less than 300 percent of the federal
poverty level and at least half of the
eligible employees enroll in PA ABC.
The time is ripe to continue to pressure
policymakers about the need to address
health care. I will continue to fight
to pass a far-reaching health-care plan
as soon as possible.
We cannot let this bill remain stagnant
on a committee table while 71
percent of uninsured Pennsylvanians are
employed and deserve affordable health-care coverage. The clock is ticking, we
need to act and save the lives of our
uninsured friends, family, and
neighbors.
Contact your legislators and urge them
to support PA ABC. Remind them that all
Pennsylvanians deserve quality,
affordable health care.
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