Dear Friend,
Budgets are statements of priorities, and it is clear from this week’s state budget proposal that Governor Corbett’s priorities are simply not aligned with middle-class Pennsylvania families.
Each year in Pennsylvania, uninsured patients receive nearly $1 billion in uncompensated medical care. Without coverage, their care is delayed, their conditions become more severe, and they turn to emergency rooms, where care is more expensive and the cost is ultimately borne by the taxpayers.
Under the Affordable Care Act, Pennsylvania has the opportunity to reduce its uninsured population by 41% with the federal government absorbing the greatest share of costs by contributing $37.8 billion over the next decade (Source: The Kaiser Family Foundation). This would have dramatically expanded access to coverage for these hard-working citizens. Health care reform took great steps to control health care costs while expanding access and strengthening benefits for all Americans.
Walking away from reducing Pennsylvania’s uninsured population by 41% is short-sighted and fiscally irresponsible.
Although the Governor failed to create certainty for a half-million of our fellow Pennsylvanians, just this week the number of states that have adopted this Medicaid expansion opportunity climbed to 20, including our neighbors in New York, Delaware, Maryland and Ohio.
This was a missed opportunity.
Sincerely,
Allyson Y. Schwartz
Member of Congress
Be sure to send me an email and let me know what your thoughts are on expanding Medicaid in Pennsylvania?
U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz with State Senate Democratic Appropriations Chair, Vincent Hughes, healthcare providers, policy experts and others to calling on Governor Corbett to join other Republican and Democratic governors around the nation and support Medicaid expansion (January 24, 2013)