Inquirer Editorial: Corbett plan still falls short

Months of fine-tuning haven't done much to enhance Gov. Corbett's planned approach to stitching up the health-care safety net for 500,000 low-income Pennsylvanians. It's still risky and shortsighted, and it looks like nothing more than political posturing.

Rather than make smart use of billions of federal dollars earmarked under Obamacare to expand Medicaid, Corbett - who with other Republican politicians failed to kill the Affordable Care Act - has sent Washington his formal request to divert those funds to subsidized, private health-insurance plans covering the working poor and others without insurance.

Several independent studies have found that expanding Medicaid under Obamacare would more than pay for itself. Corbett, however, facing reeelection this year, contends his "Healthy Pennsylvania" plan is the only affordable means to cover people whose incomes leave them stranded between Medicaid and subsidized insurance on the federal health exchange.

Federal approval of Corbett's private-insurance alternative is far from assured. In part, that's because Corbett and his welfare chief, Bev Mackereth, continue to insist that the newly insured - as well as able working-age adults on traditional Medicaid - should be required to meet work-search requirements.

Failing to meet that mandate, along with paying a modest monthly premium eventually to be levied on individuals at 100 percent over the poverty level - about $11,700 a year for an adult or $24,000 for a family of four - could result in the state canceling health coverage.

Credit Mackereth with taking note of critiques at public hearings held over the holidays. The final plan improves medical coverage in some key areas and support for community health centers, lifts caps on family doctor visits, and reassures hospitals that they will be reimbursed for newly enrolled patients in the program.

Given Corbett's stubborn refusal to expand Medicaid - in stark contrast to progressive decisions to fully enact Obamcare in some GOP-led states, including New Jersey - the best outcome might be for federal health officials to push for major improvements to Corbett's plan as a condition of their approval. (To reject the plan outright would likely give the Corbett campaign machine an opening to unfairly blame Washington for the uninsureds' plight.)

Even if he eventually gets the federal go-ahead, Corbett effectively will have gambled with the health of citizens whose access to insurance will have to wait a full year. And he will have passed up hundreds of millions in direct federal aid available this year to expand Medicaid under Obamcare - dollars that also could have spurred thousands of new jobs in health care.