A RESOLUTION

 

1Urging adoption of the Federal Patient Protection and Affordable
2Care Act provisions known as the Medicaid expansion, ensuring
3that the 613,000 Pennsylvanians who are currently uninsured
4will be eligible for health care coverage.

5WHEREAS, In 2014, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care
6Act (ACA) will expand Medicaid to people with incomes up to 133%
7of the Federal poverty guidelines ($15,302 for an individual and
8$31,155 for a family of four), and thereby remove state-by-state
9variability in Medicaid eligibility requirements for the lowest-
10income people in the nation by extending eligibility to
11nondisabled adults without minor dependent children; and

12WHEREAS, On June 28, 2012, the United States Supreme Court
13upheld the constitutionality of the ACA, but rejected that
14portion of the law that would have penalized states that do not
15comply with the expanded eligibility requirements for Medicaid
16by cutting off all Federal Medicaid funding to states that do
17not adopt the expanded eligibility provision; and

1WHEREAS, The ACA will provide Federal Medicaid financing to
2the states that adopt the expansion to cover all newly eligible
3"childless" adults at 100% of Pennsylvania's Federal Medical
4Assistance Percentage (FMAP) for the first three years of the
5expansion, for 95% of FMAP in 2017, 94% in 2018 and 94% in 2019,
6but the law provides that Federal financing will never be less
7than 90% of FMAP; and

8WHEREAS, To offset the cost of the charitable, uncompensated
9care that some hospitals provide to low-income uninsured
10individuals, many hospitals currently receive funds through the
11Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) program, but
12based on the assumption that increased Medicaid enrollment under
13the Medicaid expansion provisions of the ACA would sharply
14reduce their numbers of uninsured patients, hospitals agreed to
15ACA decreases in their DSH payments beginning in fiscal year
162014; and

17WHEREAS, Individuals without insurance are more likely to
18delay or to go without medical care or to rely on more expensive
19emergency room care where often the cost of this care is shifted
20onto the insured in the form of higher premiums, or more
21importantly, the uninsured are more likely to die prematurely
22because of this delay in care or the lack of health care; and

23WHEREAS, Not participating in the ACA Medicaid expansion will
24cause harm to the health status or contribute to the mortality
25of some of the 613,000 Pennsylvanians who are currently
26uninsured, cause financial harm to the hospitals and other
27providers who treat the uninsured, cause potential harm to the
28scores of other Pennsylvanians who are at risk of losing their
29health insurance and to the scores of Pennsylvanians who suffer
30the cost shift of uncompensated care; therefore be it

1RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives urge Governor
2Corbett to reconsider his position against Medicaid expansion
3and accept Federal funding to expand Medicaid eligibility as
4called for under the Federal Patient Protection and Affordable
5Care Act.