Dive Brief:
- As an alternative to Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, Pennsylvania is moving ahead with its own version of a "private option" for low-income state residents. Gov. Tom Corbett (R) said June 20 that nine insurers had met qualifications to provide coverage to as many as 600,000 of the state's uninsured working poor with incomes up to 133% of the federal poverty level.
- State officials had hoped to get two bids from insurers in each of nine regions in the state, but some regions got as many as six bids. Companies include United Healthcare, UPMC, Keystone Health Plan West/Highmark, Gateway Health and Vista.
- If the governor's "Healthy Pennsylvania" plan receives federal approval, then uninsured individuals could begin coverage Jan. 1, 2015.
Dive Insight:
State officials in Pennsylvania are sanguine that they will succeed in obtaining a federal waiver for Corbett's alternative to the ACA's Medicaid expansion. They told The Inquirer that they are entering the final phase of negotiations with HHS and are optimistic about progress already made in the talks.
The Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania put it simply: The group said it has conveyed to the governor and CMS "the importance to the hospital community of providing health insurance coverage to this population and to work through any remaining issues with the waiver."
Other states are also moving forward with their own versions of the "private option," most notably Arkansas, which began coverage in January of this year.