Health care yes, debt no
Your editorial “Corbett says OK, but with conditions,” on Wednesday, overlooks some key aspects of the governor’s plan to extend affordable, quality health care to the state’s uninsured.
The question the Observer-Reporter should be asking before venturing an opinion is this: Can we really afford to have 1 in 4 Pennsylvanians on Medicaid?
The decision to direct federal health care dollars toward the purchase of private health insurance on a federally created health insurance exchange isn’t going to make anybody “rich.” The purpose is to assure the best quality care, allow for consumer choice and spare recipients the ordeal of finding a physician who will accept Medicaid. Many private physicians simply won’t accept new Medicaid patients. All the insurance in the world won’t do you any good if you can’t get a doctor.
The work search requirement – limited to able-bodied recipients – is a no-brainer. Pennsylvanians want to work. Twinning aid with registration on the commonwealth’s Job Gateway database is not in the least burdensome and nobody is penalized for not getting hired. They are simply asked to try.
It is easy to ascribe all manner of motives to the governor’s plan, but we’d like to offer one for your consideration:
Tom Corbett wants to provide access to affordable, quality health insurance to more than a half-million uninsured Pennsylvanians and to do so without pushing the commonwealth and the country further into unsustainable debt.
That reflects compassion for the vulnerable, the unemployed and also for the taxpayer. That’s a plan we can all get behind.
Lynn Lawson
Harrisburg
Lawson is the director of communications for Gov. Tom Corbett.