Pennsylvania state budget

In a news report today, a key member of Governor-elect Tom Corbett's transition team said the incoming administration would allow the state's adultBasic health insurance program to end and, with it, affordable health coverage for nearly 42,000 Pennsylvanians.

The plan calls for “Special Care,” an existing program operated by the state’s four Blue Cross plans, being offered as an option to those who lose their insurance.

More than two dozen activists, people of faith and adultBasic consumers came together in Pittsburgh to call attention to the disastrous consequences that will be felt by 43,000 working Pennsylvanians if the $54 million shortfall in adultBasic funding isn’t resolved by the end of the year.

Here's a great article from today's Philadelphia Inquirer written by health reporter Don Sapatkin on the urgent funding crisis threatening the life of Pennsylvania's hugely popular and badly-needed insurance option for lower income working folks, adultBasic. The article examines how the incoming Governor and newly-elected legislators are looking to deal with the crisis amid questions surrounding the Blues insurers' commitment to continuing their contributions to the program, which have provided the bulk of the funding over the last 5 years. 

The idea of a “Patient Centered Medical Home” seems to be referenced constantly within the health care quality world.  There’s discussion of whether or not it will work, how it will be implemented, what the cost will be and so on.  All of this happens while patients by and large have no idea what the term is and what a system that embodies this idea would mean for them.