March 24, 2010

Tom Corbett

Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General
16th Floor, Strawberry Square
Harrisburg, PA 17120

Dear General Corbett:

         In the past few days there have been news reports indicating that you plan to join the Republican Attorneys General of a number of other states in filing a lawsuit to have the recently passed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act struck down. The effect of your lawsuit, if successful, would be to obviate and render null all of the provisions of said bill.

        Certainly, reasonable minds can disagree on the merits of health care policy in general and the Health Care Bill in particular. However, what is undeniably true is this: if the lawsuit you are contemplating is successful, it will cost Pennsylvania $102 million in the 2010-2011 fiscal year and billions more in the short term in the years that follow. 

         Specifically (assuming there are no major surprises in the reconciliation bill’s path to passage), this year we will lose funds by losing the authorization contained in the bill for eligibility by Managed Care Organizations to claim rebates for pharmaceuticals. In future years, our losses will fall into three categories:

               1.      Medicare Drug Payment reimbursements from PA to the Federal Government,

that the bill phases out currently cost our citizens $474 million annually and will     have to be paid each year if your lawsuit prevails;

               2.      The bill federalizes the AdultBasic insurance program, saving the taxpayers of PA

                        at least $200 million per year. That is money that will have to be paid each year if

                        the Health Care Bill is struck down; and

               3.      Similarly, covering the "doughnut hole", as the bill does, will save PA taxpayers

                        approximately $60 million per year and is growing annually.

Further, expanding Medicaid eligibility as spelled out in the bill will provide additional savings to Commonwealth taxpayers as well as provide more services to PA residents.  As you can see, striking this bill down will cost PA taxpayers billions of dollars over the next several years.

          As I’m sure you know, the legislature and the governor have assumed that this money would be available for deposit into the general fund. Fully funding our various Medical Assistance Programs is completely contingent upon the full receipt of those funds.  This means that if you are successful and we lose this money, it will create a huge budgetary problem, and will ultimately result in Pennsylvanians either losing vital services or being required to pay a large tax increase to make up the difference.

           We, the undersigned, are hoping that as an elected official and a resident of Pennsylvania, you will lend your skills, talents and efforts to fighting for Pennsylvania, rather than joining a partisan effort which has the potential to cause so much harm to our state.

           This lawsuit seeks to overturn the will of the people as expressed through their elected representatives. It is being pursued exclusively by one party, whose national leaders speak openly about how they hope efforts like this lawsuit will help them in the midterm elections. It is highly inappropriate for you, an official elected to serve all Pennsylvanians regardless of party, and a candidate for higher office yourself, to use the tax dollars paid by Pennsylvania citizens to ask a court to stop the federal government from returning this crucial federal support to the Treasury of Pennsylvania.

         We would further note that you are not needed in this lawsuit. The Republican Attorneys General of other states will continue the lawsuit with or without you. The results will be the same whether you join or do not join the litigation. So it is again unclear why we would be spending Pennsylvania’s tax dollars on this partisan endeavor.

        We are asking that you remove your name from the lawsuit and desist from using the resources of our citizens to reduce the services they receive or increase their taxes. Thank you for taking the time to review this letter.

Very Truly Yours,

Senator Daylin Leach                                                                         Representative Tim Briggs

D-Delaware/Montgomery                                                                   D-Montgomery

And the following senators and representatives:

Sen. Robert Mellow, D-22

Sen. Wayne Fontana, D-42

Sen. Shirley Kitchen, D-3

Sen. Barry Stout, D-46

Sen. Jay Costa, D-43

Sen. Sean Logan, D-45

Sen. Michael O’Pake, D-11

Sen. Michael Stack, D-5

Sen. Ray Musto, D-14

Sen. Anthony Williams, D-8

Sen. Larry Farnese, D-1

Sen. Vincent Hughes, D-7

Sen. LeAnna Washington, D-4

Sen. Christine Tartaglione , D-2

Rep. Dante Santoni, D-Berks

Rep. Jim Wansacz, D-Lackawanna, Luzerne, Susquehanna, Wyoming

Rep. Rick Taylor, D-Montgomery

Rep. Vanessa Brown, D-Philadelphia

Rep. Mike Sturla, D-Lancaster

Rep. Phyllis Mundy, D-Luzerne

Rep. Ronald Waters, D-Philadelphia/Delaware

Rep. Dwight Evans, D-Philadelphia

Rep. Jake Wheatley, D-Allegheny

Rep. Steve Santarsiero, D-Bucks

Rep. Tony Payton, D-Philadelphia

Rep. Michael McGeehan, D-Philadelphia

Rep. Tony Melio, D-Bucks

Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Philadelphia/Montgomery

Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Allegheny

Rep. Kevin Murphy, D-Lackawanna

Rep. Robert Freeman, D-Northampton

Rep. Bryan Lentz, D-Delaware

Rep. Babette Josephs, D-Philadelphia

Rep. Marc Gergely, D-Allegheny

Rep. Chelsa Wagner, D-Allegheny

Rep. Thaddeus Kirkland, D-Delaware

Rep. Louise Bishop, D-Philadelphia

Rep. Barb McIlvaine Smith, D-Chester

Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski, D-Luzerne

Rep. John Myers, D-Philadelphia

Rep. Michael O’Brien, D-Philadelphia

Rep. Peter Daley, D-Fayette/Washington