AdultBasic Health Plan Running Out of Money
adultBasic Funding Crisis
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Editorial: Keep 'em covered: Bolstering adultBasic must be a priority in 2011
The Philadelphia Inquirer: Health coverage at risk for working poor in Pa.
Bucks County Intelligencer: 43,000 could lose state health coverage
Pennsylvania Public Radio: Adultbasic could go broke in February
Press Release: Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center and Pennsylvania Health Access Network
November 17, 2010
Nearly 43,000 Pennsylvanians are at risk of losing their health insurance early next year due to a funding shortfall in the adultBasic health insurance program.
As The Philadelphia Inquirer reported today, adultBasic will run out of funding within weeks of Governor-elect Tom Corbett’s inauguration in January. The newspaper reported that adultBasic is underfunded by $54 million in the 2010-11 Fiscal Year.
The state’s four Blue Cross/Blue Shield plans agreed in 2005, amid concerns about their fund surpluses, to help fund adultBasic, which provides no-frills health coverage to uninsured adults earning up to 200% of the poverty level. That agreement was scheduled to expire in December, but earlier this year the Blues agreed to extend their contributions to adultBasic through June 2011.
Rendell administration officials, however, say the Blues’ contributions are not enough to sustain adultBasic beyond early 2011, meaning that thousands of working Pennsylvanians are at risk of losing their health coverage early next year.
“The Blues committed to continue funding adultBasic through June 2011,” Sharon Ward, Director of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, said in a press release today. “It is incumbent upon Governor-elect Tom Corbett to ensure that the Blues maintain that commitment and make sufficient contributions to fully fund adultBasic until a permanent solution is worked out.”
Read more about the adultBasic funding crisis in that joint press release from PBPC and the Pennsylvania Health Access Network.
