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State
Rep. Eugene DePasquale |
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Please print for Sunday, April 27, 2008
The ABCs of affordable, accessible health care
by state Rep. Eugene DePasquale, D-York
Health-care reform is a top priority in Pennsylvania. The costs of care are skyrocketing. Also, too many people, especially working families, are without coverage while many more are paying higher prices for basic care. Also, there are many small businesses that are struggling to offer health benefits to their employees.
Recently, the Legislature has developed and improved programs to impact children and seniors, targeted patient safety in health-care facilities and expanded the duties of qualified but underutilized health-care professionals. All of these initiatives are striving towards the goal of increasing quality and reducing the cost of care. However, these initiatives are not nearly enough.
It is important to note that most of the uninsured aren’t unemployed. The uninsured are mostly people who are working full-time but cannot afford health coverage or are not offered coverage through their employers. The burden of obtaining private coverage and the impact of spending a large part of take-home pay on insurance premiums are crippling many working families. Others are simply dropped from their plans or can’t obtain insurance because of pre-existing medical conditions.
To address these and other health-care issues, I recently supported a plan that would provide Pennsylvania adults of all income levels with access to affordable health-insurance coverage. This plan passed the House of Representatives with wide bipartisan support.
Pennsylvania Access to Basic Care is now under consideration in the state Senate. PA ABC would provide the state’s working uninsured the ability to receive basic care, including prescription drug benefits and preventative check-ups. The plan would also immediately provide affordable health insurance to the 80,000 Pennsylvanians who are on the waiting list for the state's current program for working adults, adultBasic, which is a private insurance plan developed in the Republican Ridge-Schweiker administrations.
To help small businesses, PA ABC would allow these businesses to purchase insurance for their employees through the state plan, and make $42 million in state grants available to help defray costs for those already providing coverage to their employees. The program also would continue to help doctors pay their medical malpractice insurance premiums so we can keep health-care professionals practicing in Pennsylvania.
A study conducted by the Institute of Medicine shows that everyone suffers when large portions of a city or state are without health insurance. Emergency rooms become overcrowded; hospitals are forced to provide more uncompensated care (at a cost of about $1.4 billion annually); and the premiums of those who do have insurance go up. PA ABC would lower the cost of uncompensated care for hospitals and reduce the pressure on everyone else's insurance premiums.
I realize that health-care reform is a tough issue. However, I strongly believe that PA ABC can greatly increase health-care coverage in our area and hold costs down. As this issue moves forward, it is my hope that the debate focuses on how to take the issue of universal health care and potentially make it better -- not an attempt to defeat it for political gain. The people of Pennsylvania have had enough of that. With regard to health care, Pennsylvanians want action and they want it now.
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