CORBETT SEEKS FEDERAL CUSHION AS ADULTBASIC ENDS
Corbett seeks federal cushion as adultBasic ends
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – The Corbett administration began seeking federal help Monday to extend coverage to some people who have pre-existing medical conditions and are scheduled to lose their state-subsided health insurance soon.
Gov. Tom Corbett’s nominee for state insurance commissioner wrote to Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius seeking more money and looser rules on who can join the federally funded program called PA Fair Care, which is for Pennsylvanians who can’t get health insurance because of pre-existing conditions.
State officials say more than 40,000 low-income working adults in the adultBasic program are expected to lose their state-subsidized insurance when money runs out Feb. 28, leaving them only more expensive alternatives.
Under the Corbett administration’s proposal, the money would come from other states that do not need it for their program equivalent, and the federal government would waive a requirement that applicants be without health insurance for six months before enrolling.
A Sebelius spokesman said he was unaware of the letter and could not immediately comment on it Monday.
With a multibillion-dollar state budget deficit forecast for the fiscal year beginning July 1, the Corbett administration has said it cannot find the money to maintain adultBasic. Corbett’s fellow Republicans in the Legislature have blamed former Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell for running the 9-year-old adultBasic into the ground, while Democratic lawmakers have criticized Corbett’s apparent willingness to let adultBasic end.
On Monday, more than two dozen Democratic lawmakers gathered in the Capitol Rotunda and said the alternatives being proposed by Corbett are unaffordable to adultBasic enrollees.
Joining them was an adultBasic enrollee, Jerry Kaufman, a self-employed trash hauler from Erie who grossed less than $20,000 before taxes last year and is worried that he will need treatment for prostate cancer.
“I don’t have $50,000 or $100,000 to pay for my treatments,” said Kaufman, 61.
His alternatives, he said, might mean going into his life savings to pay for an insurance plan.
At least one Republican, Sen. Edwin Erickson, of Delaware, said Monday that he will push to find money to extend adultBasic. Raising the monthly premium will have to be part of any discussion, he said.
AdultBasic is bare-bones health insurance and doesn’t include dental care or prescription drugs. It is offered to low-income adults who make too much money to qualify for Medicaid and are too young to qualify for Medicare.
At an average monthly premium of $36, it is much less expensive than PA Fair Care, which carries a monthly premium of $283, plus copays and coinsurance.
However, PA Fair Care offers broader coverage. Besides covering doctors visits and hospitalization, it covers mental health services and prescription medications.
The program is an element of the new federal health care law signed by President Barack Obama last March and has enough initial funding in Pennsylvania to serve 3,500 people.
Corbett spokesman Kevin Harley said 2,269 people had enrolled in PA Fair Care as of Jan. 1, more than similar programs in any other state.
Corbett, who took office last week, also wants the state’s nonprofit Blue Cross and Blue Shield health insurers to allow adultBasic enrollees into their more expensive Special Care programs. Those programs offer limited health coverage at rates of at least several times the adultBasic monthly premium.
AdultBasic has been financed by proceeds from the state’s 1998 settlement with major cigarette manufacturers and the Blues insurers. In 2005, the Blues, which were under state scrutiny for the size of their surpluses, agreed to help finance adultBasic for six years, through Dec. 31, 2010.
Rendell administration officials had said they tried unsuccessfully to get the Blues to contribute enough money to keep the program going through June 30.
A number of Republicans in the GOP-controlled Legislature say Rendell ran the program into the ground by relying too heavily on money from the Blues, keeping premiums too low and enrolling too many people in it.
The Associated Press
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