PRINTER'S NO. 4665
No. 743 Session of 2002
INTRODUCED BY KENNEY, MAJOR, ROBERTS, CORNELL, J. TAYLOR, VANCE,
CLARK AND JADLOWIEC, NOVEMBER 21, 2002
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON RULES, NOVEMBER 21, 2002
A RESOLUTION
1 Recognizing the existence of a subset of hospitals that provide
2 a significant amount of care to uninsured and disadvantaged
3 Pennsylvanians, and urging the General Assembly to take into
4 account the special situation of these vital hospitals when
5 implementing public policy.
6 WHEREAS, The people of Pennsylvania deserve access to the
7 highest quality health care; and
8 WHEREAS, Nearly one million Pennsylvanians, ten percent of
9 the Commonwealths residents, have no health insurance, another
10 1.1 million residents are insured by Medical Assistance, and
11 countless others are underinsured; and
12 WHEREAS, The health care safety net is often referred to as a
13 combination of institutions and programs that devote significant
14 resources to caring for the uninsured and disadvantaged; and
15 WHEREAS, In most parts of the country, the health care needs
16 of these individuals are met to a significant degree by publicly
17 owned and operated hospitals specifically created to subsidize
18 health care for the poor; and
19 WHEREAS, Pennsylvania no longer operates any publicly owned
1 acute-care hospitals, but rather relies on a network of private-
2 sector hospitals to meet the health care needs of its
3 disadvantaged residents; and
4 WHEREAS, Among these Pennsylvania hospitals, a subset is
5 distinguished by the unusually large amount of resources that
6 they devote to caring for the poor; and
7 WHEREAS, This subset of hospitals, Pennsylvanias safety-net
8 hospitals, provide a portion of their services to low-income
9 patients Medical Assistance, Medicare SSI, and uninsured
10 patients that is greater than that of 75 percent of the
11 hospitals in Pennsylvania; and
12 WHEREAS, These hospitals care for three times as many Medical
13 Assistance patients and fifty percent more uninsured patients as
14 other hospitals; and
15 WHEREAS, They rely more heavily on increasingly inadequate
16 government reimbursement to cover medical expenses while also
17 caring for more patients for whom they receive no reimbursement
18 at all; and
19 WHEREAS, As a direct result of providing a significant amount
20 of care to the poor, they are worse off financially than their
21 peers and are unable to compete on an equal footing; therefore
22 be it
23 RESOLVED, That ensuring the financial viability of these
24 safety-net hospitals is critical in maintaining access to health
25 care services for this Commonwealths poor and disadvantaged; and
26 be it further
27 RESOLVED, That the General Assembly take into account the
28 special situation of these vital hospitals when implementing
29 public policy.
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