March 25, 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 act.

Certainly, there is some room to disagree about the wisdom of providing health insurance to approximately 800,000 Pennsylvanians who are not currently covered, prohibiting insurance companies from denying people coverage for pre-existing conditions, or reducing the federal deficit by $1.4 trillion over the next two decades. However, what is undeniably true is this: If the lawsuit you are contemplating is successful, it will cost Pennsylvania approximately $102 million in the 2010-2011 fiscal year and billions of dollars over the out-years as the various provisions of the federal act take effect.

Specifically, this year we will lose funds associated with extending federal drug rebates to Medicaid managed care organizations. In future years, our losses will fall into the following categories:

1. The federal drug rebates that we will receive for Medicaid managed care will be lost if your lawsuit prevails, costing Pennsylvania taxpayers more than $100 million per year.
2. The health reform act enables us to federalize 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 act is struck down.
3. Similarly, the health reform act enables us to receive federal dollars for kids currently in the CHIP insurance program, which will save PA taxpayers approximately $100 million per year. These funds will be lost under your lawsuit.
4. The health reform act closes the “donut hole” for seniors, for which Pennsylvania taxpayers currently pay an annual cost of $60 million and growing. Consequently, this represents annual savings that would be lost if your lawsuit prevails and the Commonwealth continues to bear these costs.

Further, provisions in the act that expand Medicaid eligibility will provide additional savings to Commonwealth taxpayers as well as provide more services to PA residents. For example, chronically ill adults who are currently in the state-funded General Assistance program could become eligible for Medicaid with the state receiving federal funds to pay for their health care.

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 Governors 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,