PHILLY.COM / AP: Hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvania residents left out of coverage under the 2010 federal health care law now have a chance to get insurance as the state undertakes a massive overhaul to health care for the poor.
On Monday, enrollment begins in the Healthy Pennsylvania program, the name given to Pennsylvania’s Medicaid expansion by outgoing Republican Gov. Tom Corbett. Coverage will begin Jan. 1, and state officials say some 600,000 people – primarily low-income, single working adults – are newly eligible for coverage under guidelines set by the 2010 law.
The application process comes as the Corbett administration is overhauling benefits in Pennsylvania’s existing Medicaid program. That will affect coverage for approximately 900,000 other adults who already are covered by the program, primarily the elderly, disabled, low-income parents or low-income pregnant women… (more)
EDITOR: According to the White House Council of Economic Advisers, had Corbett accepted the federal Medicaid expansion for the poor, not only would hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians received coverage but the state would have saved $65.2 million dollars.
That figure includes actual savings by eliminating current state programs that provided far lesser benefits than those that will now be available through the above cited state / federal program.
There likely will soon be even greater coverage and state savings when Gov. Tom Wolf comes into office and fully emraces the federal long term subsidies.
