Onorato, Corbett both back health insurance extension

Jul 29, 2010 — The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Mike Wereschagin

Jul. 29, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- Almost 46,000 people could lose health insurance coverage Jan. 1 unless the state and four Blue Cross Blue Shield insurers agree on a way to keep funding Pennsylvania's low-income insurance program, according to PA Access Health Network.

AdultBasic gets most of its $160 million annual budget from a five-year funding agreement with the insurers. The agreement expires Dec. 31. Highmark Inc. and other insurance companies have said they're willing to extend the program for six months. Program advocates want the agreement to extend to 2014, when the federal health insurance overhaul fully takes effect.

"It's a lifeline," said Allegheny County Executive and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dan Onorato, who supports the 2014 extension. Onorato spoke Wednesday at the Birmingham Free Clinic in the South Side, one of five rallies across the state, and said he'd make the issue part of his campaign. "Especially in this recession ... we cannot afford for over 45,000 hard-working Pennsylvanians to lose their health insurance."

Attorney General Tom Corbett, the Republican candidate for governor, supports a six-month extension, which a Corbett spokesman said "would allow the new governor to work with the Legislature, as well as with health insurance providers, ... to devise a system that's fair."

Pennsylvania's next governor takes office in January.

AdultBasic insures 45,927 participants ages 19 to 64 who earn too much money to be eligible for Medicare but too little to readily afford private insurance. To qualify, enrollees must make no more than $21,660 annually. The maximum limit is $44,100 for a household of four.

Almost 400,000 people are on the waiting list, up from about 165,000 at the beginning of 2009. People offered enrollment in 2009 and 2010 waited about three years, according to the state Insurance Department. Those on the waiting list can buy insurance for the full cost of the plan: $600 a month.

The program cost $157 million in 2009, according to the Insurance Department.

During the five-year agreement, Highmark, the largest contributor, paid more than $300 million to adultBasic and $800 million overall on health care for low-income participants, said spokesman Michael Weinstein. The insurer paid the state the $32 million that it would owe for a six-month extension of adultBasic, Weinstein said.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0288-47419117