Pittsburgh Rallies to Save adultBasic!
In Pittsburgh, the Pennsylvania Health Access Network stood alongside health care providers, consumers and advocates to fight to preserve adultBasic for the 46,000 Pennsylvanians who could lose access to health care if funding for the program dries up at the end of the year.
Mary Herbert, Clinical Director of the Birmingham Free Clinic, which provides medical care to the uninsured, spoke of how extremely strapped their resources are already. Mary said that the Birmingham Clinic, which is part of a collection of free clinics providing health care to the uninsured across the state, is already overburdened by the increasing demand for their services. She said that all of Birmingham’s partner clinics across state have been overwhelmed by the numbers of uninsured Pennsylvanians turning to them as a last resort for care and that they are all struggling to meet the great need. “adultBasic gives folks a way to obtain affordable health care and keeps them out of our already overburdened clinics. Letting this program expire and adding 46,000 more Pennsylvanians to the ranks of the uninsured will make the problem even worse—for consumers, and for clinics like ours that provide essential care to the uninsured.”
Next, health care activist Georgeanne Koehler read a statement prepared by Cal Schuchman, who is currently ensured under adultBasic. Cal spoke of the need to give working folks who are trying to get ahead some way to access affordable health insurance and how important adultBasic has been to him.
Allegheny County Executive and Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Dan Onorato spoke at length about the need for adultBasic to continue despite the fact that federal health care reform has passed. Emphasizing that the program is there for people who are doing the right thing—working, trying to make ends meet—and that the Blues and the Legislature should work to ensure the program is funded until the Pennsylvania Insurance Exchange created by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is up and running in 2010. When asked if he would sign PHAN’s petition to “save adultBasic” he said, “Not only will I sign the petition, but I am making the issue of continuing adultBasic one of my campaign platforms moving forward.”
Dave Ninehouser, a local PHAN volunteer spoke about the impact that losing this important program will have on thousands of working people in the region—people like the single mom working in a local mall who works 60 hours a week as a hairdresser who can’t get health care through her employer and can’t afford it on the private market. She’s just one of the thousands of people in our region and across Pennsylvania that will be shut off from health care if the adultBasic program is allowed to expire.
Dave echoed PHAN’s call for the state’s Blue-Cross Blue-Shield Insurers to maintain their commitment to adultBasic through the Community Health Reinvestment Fund through 2014: “We’re not asking the Blues’ to stop recording huge surpluses. We’re not asking the Blues’ to give back the tax breaks they receive as non-profit entities. All were asking is that they maintain their commitment through 2014 until the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the new Pennsylvania insurance exchange are up and running.”
Dave was optimistic about the Blues’ doing the right thing voluntarily, but said that if they planned on walking away from their commitment to fund adultBasic, advocates and health care activists across the state were ready to fight for House Bill 2455, a bill that would require the Blues to continue their funding by extending the Community Health Reinvestment Act through 2014. “We are asking our lawmakers to stand with the hardworking Pennsylvanians struggling to maintain health care for them and their families.”
If you are on adultBasic or on the waiting list and would like to help us raise awareness about this critical issue in the media and with legislators, please contact Erin Gill-Ninehouser, Western PA Organizer at egill@pahealthaccess.org or (412) 512-9225.
To see local coverage of today’s Pittsburgh event, see:
Health Insurance on the Rocks (W-DUQ Pittsburgh): http://wduqnews.blogspot.com/2010/07/health-insurance-program-on-rocks.html
Onorato Joins Push to Extend Low-Income Health Coverage (Post-Gazette): http://post-gazette.com/pg/10209/1075887-100.stm
KDKA-TV Pittsburgh (CBS)—Jon Delano’s Report: http://kdka.com/health/adultBasic.health.insurance.2.1830177.html
WPXI-TV Pittsburgh (NBC)—Not yet posted online, check back!
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