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Call to Action: Pennsylvanians Deserve Access to Affordable Health Care Insurance
A Message From Rosemarie B. Greco, Director, Governor's Office of Health Care Reform
Across America, there are 46 million people without health insurance and 767,000 of them are adults in Pennsylvania. In Pennsylvania, the cost of health care has risen 75 percent over the past five years, and wages have only gone up 13 percent, leaving thousands of our people struggling to provide health insurance coverage for their families. Just who are Pennsylvania’s uninsured adults?
The vast majority – 71 percent – have full-time jobs and many are employed by small businesses. Most workers earn low wages and do not have access to health insurance because of the high cost of premiums for businesses and individuals. Seventy-six percent have household incomes less than $60,000 for a family of four and 27 percent have been without health care coverage for more than five years.
A Families USA study estimates that approximately 710 working-age Pennsylvanians died as a result of lacking health care in 2006, which is nearly two people every day. Nationally, the lack of health insurance was responsible for twice as many deaths as homicide in 2006.
The uninsured are your friends, your neighbors, your family. Some of you are just one illness or one lost job away from joining the ranks of the uninsured.
Here’s a typical story I heard recently. Kristen is from Pittsburgh, went to college, is married to a self-employed contractor and had a job that provided health insurance for them both. She decided to give up her job for a few years to take care of her then new born son, but only after she did some research and judged that they could afford the cost of health care insurance. |
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She and her husband did not realize that their relatively minor health conditions would be considered “pre-existing conditions” – which insurers in Pennsylvania may use as a rationale for charging more than twice the base rate premium.
So, the two of them joined some 800,000 other Pennsylvania adults with no health care coverage. Most months they have been able to afford her husband’s high blood pressure medication, but Kristen knows they are only one illness or injury away from total financial ruin. They share the worry that thousands of others know – the scary feeling when they have physical symptoms or ailments they know should be checked out, but that get put off because they just can’t afford it.
This tendency to postpone primary care visits can have serious consequences -- it can result in decades of poor health, and millions of dollars of added medical costs.
The House of Representatives recently passed a program to help the uninsured and small businesses – sending legislation to create the PA Access to Basic Care, Senate Bill 1137, to the Senate on March 17. On April 1, the House passed House Bill 2005 to limit the factors insurers can consider in setting rates and ban consideration of pre-existing conditions. Now it is up to the Senate to pass these proposals.
Solving the health care crisis will require bold decisions and bold leadership. The Senate can and must end this wait for affordable health insurance. But we need your help. Call your Senator and make your voice heard today!
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Not sure who your legislator is?
Visit their website: - use the member search option in the top right corner to find your legislator or Call us at : 717-772-9022 and we’ll help you find out.
Have a question about Rx for PA?
Visit our web site, www.rxforpa.com, or click here for frequently asked questions.
View the recent financial analysis of the PA ABC health care plan. |
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© Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. All rights reserved. Photos courtesy of Commonwealth Media Services. |
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