Category: My Work

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Senate Bill Raises Marketplace and Employer-based Premiums for Most Pennsylvanians

  By ACA, Health Care, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts

We have been focused recently on the impact of the Senate health care bill on Medicaid, mainly because the dangers of both the House and Senate bills to Medicaid have not been well known, and because the Senate bill is far worse than the House bill. So, in this and next post I want to remind you that if you purchase health insurance on the exchanges / marketplaces or receive it from your employer, the Senate bill is bad for you as well. The following table looks at the impact of the Senate bill on the average premiums Pennsylvanians at different ages and income levels will pay for silver plans on the marketplace. For all but 35 year olds at 300% of the poverty, premiums will be higher than under the ACA. For Pennsylvanians who have lower incomes or are older, the premium increases are substantial. For forty-five year olds… Continue reading

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How Dumb Does Senator Toomey Think We Are?

  By Medicaid, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts

Marc Stier | 07/02/2017 Blog I’m not just a practitioner of political rhetoric, but also a connoisseur of it. I can appreciate a good argument and a well-turned phrase put forward by our ideological opponents. And, rather than get disturbed by what the other side says, I take their best work as a challenge. But what truly does get me angry is when our opponents not only lie, but do so with arguments that are insulting to the intelligence of the people we are trying to influence – the citizens of Pennsylvania and America. So it’s no wonder that I find what Senator Toomey says about the impact of the Senate health care bill on Medicaid so utterly offensive. When I hear him speak on the plan he played a major role in devising, I can’t help but wonder, ‘how dumb does Toomey think we are?’  I can quickly answer: Not… Continue reading

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The Republicans of My Youth Didn’t Borrow to Balance Budgets

  By PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Politics, US

First of two pieces of why I miss the Republicans of my youth.  There are times when I miss the old-fashioned Republicans of my youth, in the small-town America in which I grew up, about 40 miles over the Pennsylvania border in rural New York. Those mostly Protestant Republicans were the bankers, the insurance agents, the ministers, as well as many of the doctors and lawyers. They were a little stiff and formal in their suits and ties, horn-rimmed glasses, grey suits and deep voices—and the hats they all wore in the early 60s. They were men (no women were among them) who carried themselves with an easy dignity and a concern for propriety. Some of them were no doubt louts or adulterers behind closed doors. Some drank too much in private—or sometimes even in public in the evening. Some may have cheated in business or on their taxes. But… Continue reading

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First Look at the 2017-18 State Budget

  By Budget, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Pennsylvania Budget

While we will need some time to analyze the details of the budget that the House and Senate will pass today, our preliminary view is that it is, as we had expected from the beginning of the year, an austere budget that does not really address the deep public investment deficit of the state, but it certainly could have been far worse. Given that the General Assembly seems utterly unwilling to raise revenues to meet public needs, negotiations by the leaders of the legislature and Governor Wolf have led to a budget that still takes some small steps forward. We caution, however, that we have only half of a budget so far. No plan has been passed to secure the revenues necessary to balance the budget. And, as we will point out later today in more detail, we are deeply troubled by reports that the deficit for the year that… Continue reading

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State As Well As Federal Republicans Go After Medicaid

  By Health Care, Medicaid, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Public Policy, Work requirements

At both the state and federal level, Republican Party leaders seem to be on the warpath against Medicaid. Thankfully, rank and file Republicans in both legislatures and the public seem to be pushing back against them, as long, bi-partisan support for Medicaid continues. At the federal level, both the Senate and House Republican health care bills call for drastic cuts to not just the Medicaid Expansion but traditional Medicaid. The cuts they propose will lead to tens of thousands of seniors, children, disabled people and working adults losing health care. Thankfully some Republicans are pushing back against the proposal. Four Pennsylvania Republican members of the U.S. House delegation voted against the House bill. And while Senator Toomey is pushing to make the Senate bill worse, so far he hasn’t convinced all his Republicans colleagues to join him. In Pennsylvania, Republican leaders want to seek federal waivers for our Medicaid program… Continue reading

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Effects of U.S. Senate Health Care Bill on Pennsylvania

  By ACA, Health Care, Memos, PA Budget and Policy Center

MEMO To: Interested Parties From: Marc Stier, Director, Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center Date: June 28, 2017 Re: Effects of U.S. Senate Health Care Bill on Pennsylvania The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center will be releasing a number of briefs on the effects of the U.S. Senate health care bill in the next few days. You can see our initial statement in response to the CBO scoring of the bill here. Below is our first brief on the effects of the bill on Pennsylvania. Who Shall Live and Who Shall Die – Estimating Number of Premature Deaths Due to the GOP Health Care Plan Legislators, like God, make decisions all the time about who shall live and who shall die. So many public policies, from those that control access to medicinal and recreation drugs, to those that set speed limits and safety standards for the roads, to those that help people… Continue reading

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PBPC On the CBO Report for the Senate Health Care Bill

  By ACA, Health Care, PA Budget and Policy Center, Statements

Marc Stier, Director of the PA Budget and Policy Center, made the following statement following today’s release of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report on the U.S. Senate GOP Health Care Bill (Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017) It’s official — the Senate health care bill is not an improvement but actually worse for Americans than the House bill. The CBO analysis released today holds that 22 million fewer Americans will be insured in 2026 as a result of the Better Care Reconciliation Act. That is slightly better than the House bill. But, as the CBO itself hints, it’s ten-year analysis of the bill does not take into account the drastic change the Senate bill makes to the Medicaid program in 2025. This plan, proposed by Senator Toomey, reduces the index by which per capita caps go up each year from the medical inflation rate (CPI-M, which is projected by… Continue reading

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Which Direction for America? What’s at Stake in the Health Care Debate?

  By ACA, Health Care, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts

Marc Stier | 06/25/2017 Blog One of the fascinating / distressing things about the health care debate on Facebook is that it’s bringing the truth out in a way that the debate in the Senate is not. If you have any doubt that this is a inflection point in our history, in which the forces of tolerance, compassion and justice are arrayed against the forces of bigotry, greed, and injustice, look at what the opponents of the ACA are saying.   I’ve seen folks blaming “fat, poor people who eat badly” for their own illnesses because, as they would say, most illness is self-inflicted. of course, there are no rich people who ever get fat or eat badly, yet they get health care. I’ve seen folks say they shouldn’t pay for the health care of those who can’t afford it, even though they don’t do so under the ACA, which… Continue reading

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A Severance Tax: The Basics

  By PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Severance Tax, Taxation

Pennsylvania has been considering a severance tax on natural gas for years. Here are four reasons it is long overdue: TALKING POINT #1: A severance tax can bring in substantial and, as natural gas prices rise, growing revenues to help close our budget and investment deficits now and in the future. Governor Wolf’s proposal is projected to bring in $349 million next year, $712 million in 2018-2019 and $1.15 billion a year by 2021-22. (These are net revenues after deducting a credit for the impact fee already paid by natural gas drillers.) Even a tax at slightly lower levels brings in over $200 million next year and close to a billion dollars a year 2021-2022. TALKING POINT #2: Oil and gas development companies pay comparatively little in state taxes now. Even though gas production has increased from 4,070 billion cubic feet in 2004 to 5,096 in 2016, total revenue from… Continue reading

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What Is the Fair Share Tax?

  By Fair Share Tax, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Taxation

The main reason that Pennsylvania’s tax system is so upside down — with the top 1% paying only 4.3% of their income in taxes while the middle 20% pays 10% — is that the Pennsylvania Constitution prohibits us from enacting a graduated personal income tax. Sales and property taxes tend to take a higher percentage of the income of taxpayers at the bottom and in the middle than at the top. But graduated income taxes in many states — including all of our neighbors — compensate by taxing those at the top at a higher rate. We can start to fix our broken tax system by adopting what we call a Fair Share Tax which has been introduced by Senators Costa, Hughes, and Haywood as SB555.  Here are the key elements of it: The Personal Income Tax which is currently set at 3.07% will be divided into two taxes. The… Continue reading