Governor Corbett Proposes Medicaid Expansion Alternative
Rather than expanding Medicaid to cover more Pennsylvanians when the mandate to have health insurance kicks into effect, Pennsylvania Tom Corbett proposed yesterday that funds for the expansion instead be used to help state residents get private health insurance. The pitch will need federal approval.
When the US Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the insurance mandate under Congress' taxing power, the court separately rejected making the expansion of Medicaid mandatory upon the states. Some Republican governors have accepted the expansion, while others like Corbett have not.
The Harrisburg Patriot News editorial board welcomed Corbett's efforts to expand insurance coverage for poorer Pennsylvanians but said requiring participants to look for work in exchange for coverage and imposing a modest co-pay might make the plan unworkable. Read the full piece here: http://www.pennlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2013/09/corbett_rolls_the_dice...
In closing the board said: "The insurance gap remains one of the most pressing public policy questions of our time. The first and only priority should be closing that gap. Ideology, if it is a factor at all, should finish a distant second."
Lawyer and Legal Journalist
