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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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State
Rep. Dante Santoni |
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House takes up health care for the uninsured
HARRISBURG, March 12 – State Rep. Dante Santoni, D-Berks, said the House is considering legislation that would offer more working Pennsylvanians basic health insurance, including the nearly 3,200 Berks County residents who are on the waiting list for the state's low-cost insurance program known as adutlBasic.
Santoni said the proposal being debated in the state House this week and next, called Pennsylvania Access to Basic Care, also would help doctors pay their medical malpractice insurance premiums for another 10 years and help small businesses defray the cost of providing health insurance to their lower-income workers.
"Pennsylvania faces many challenging priorities and health-care reform is at the top of the priority list for me and many of my colleagues," Santoni said. "Over the years, we've worked to expand PACE and PACENET to ensure that older residents have access to life-saving medicines and to improve CHIP so that more kids have access to health care.
"But we haven't done enough to help uninsured working adults and haven't done enough for small employers who are struggling to cover their employees. This plan takes that next and necessary step toward health-care reform."
Under the insurance portion of PA ABC, uninsured people earning less than 150 percent of the federal poverty level – about $32,000 for a family of four – would have fully subsidized coverage under the plan. Uninsured Pennsylvanians earning between 150 percent and 200 percent of the poverty level could access coverage for a monthly premium of $40 or $50, depending on income. For higher income people – those earning up to 300 percent of the poverty level – PA ABC would be available at about $311 a month. The program also would act as an insurer of last resort for people with higher incomes who are denied private health insurance.
"People who are uninsured are often forced to use the emergency room as their primary care physician," Santoni said. "Uncompensated care at hospitals costs $1.4 billion a year and adds hundreds of dollars to insurance premiums. By providing access to care for more uninsured Pennsylvanians, PA ABC will lower health-care costs for all residents because it will reduce the number of people forced to the ER for basic care."
Santoni said the plan also would continue to reimburse hospitals for uncompensated care costs.
Also under the plan, businesses with fewer than 50 employees whose workers earn less than 300 percent of the poverty level would be able to provide health coverage to those employees through PA ABC. Small businesses that are already providing health insurance to their workers would be eligible for state grants to help them continue that coverage.
Santoni said the House may take a final vote on the proposal as soon as next week.
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