PRESS RELEASE – Thursday, March 6, 2014
Contact: Amelia Abromaitis; Amelia.Abromaitis@seiuhcpa.org / 215.219.4248
SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania’s President Neal Bisno: The Corbett Administration Needs to Go One Step Further and Eliminate all Barriers to Healthcare Access in Healthy PA Plan
Harrisburg, PA – In response to the Corbett Administration’s announcement that it is dropping Healthy PA’s work-search requirement, Neal Bisno, President of SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, issued the following statement:
“We are pleased that the Corbett Administration has listened to the thousands of voices calling for Medicaid Expansion and has taken us a step closer to ensuring the approval of expanded access for uninsured Pennsylvanians.
Although we are encouraged by this positive step, we are equally concerned by Healthy PA’s proposed cuts to the Medicaid program that would adversely impact seniors, people with disabilities and lower-income Pennsylvanians.
We continue to call on the Corbett Administration to eliminate all barriers to healthcare access – reduced benefits, increased costs, and punitive lock-out periods.
Traditional Medicaid Expansion continues to offer the best solution to protecting and expanding Pennsylvania’s vital safety net for more than 1.2 million uninsured citizens, while providing 35,000 family-sustaining job and saving taxpayers $522 million in 2014.
More importantly, it could help save lives. According to a recent study by the Harvard Medical School and the City University of New York, 1,491 deaths could be avoided if Pennsylvania would just opt in Medicaid Expansion. It is not too late for Governor Corbett to say yes to Medicaid Expansion.”