Pennsylvania Will not Set up State-Based Health Exchange

By Eric Boehm | PA Independent

HARRISBURG – Gov. Tom Corbett said Wednesday afternoon that Pennsylvania would not pursue a state-based health exchange under the new federal health care law.

Instead, the state will allow the federal government to set up the exchange.  Pennsylvania is the 28th state to reject the option of having a state-based exchange.

[Exchanges will allow low-income people to determine if they qualify for Medicaid coverage and middle-income people to purchase private insurance plans.]

In a letter to Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Corbett said the department had not provided adequate information to address his questions about how the exchange would be setup and operate.

“With regulations still to be finalized and with more forthcoming, too many unknowns remain for us to plan accordingly,” Corbett wrote. “Therefore, I’ve decided Pennsylvania will not move forward with establishing a state-based health insurance exchange at this time.”

Christine Conkright, a spokeswoman for the governor, said the state still was determining what would happen to the $33-million grant from the federal government that was supposed to be used to help fund the establishment of the exchange.

In a statement, Corbett said he was still undecided about whether he would chose to expand Medicaid under the federal health care law — the other major decision that all states must make in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling that upheld the law but required states to opt-in to the Medicaid expansion.

Contact Eric Boehm at Eric@PAIndependent.com and follow @PAIndependent on Twitter.

— Edited by Kelly Carson, kcarson@watchdog.org