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PA House GOP Stealth Attack on Medicaid

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

**UPDATE 7/11/17 – 4:45 PM** The House passed the bill through to the Senate 102-91. The Senate must again vote on the bill as amended PA House Republican leaders are trying to force Pennsylvania to seek federal waivers for our Medicaid program that would establish requirements that Medicaid recipients either be working or searching for a job and that that ask them to pay premiums or higher co-pays for their insurance. These ideas were part of Governor Corbett’s plan to expand Medicaid, which Governor Wolf rightly rejected. Now, the House will vote on these terrible provisions as part of the budget code (instructions for implementing the budget) for 2017-18 after it was added as an amendment in the House Rules Committee. What’s the objection to work requirements or premiums for Medicaid? First, support for a work or job search requirement is based on a misconception that there are a large… Continue reading

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Revenue Options to Finish the 2017-18 Budget

  By Budget, Memos, PA Budget and Policy Center, Pennsylvania Budget, Taxation

Since 2010, Pennsylvania has consistently enacted budgets that, instead of being paid for by current revenues, borrow from the future. The general fund budget has been balanced by borrowing from other funds, shifting spending from one fiscal year to the next, and more. In this press memo, we outline a few revenue options with bipartisan support that could provide at least some of the long-term revenues needed to balance Pennsylvania’s budget. MEMO To: Editorial Page Editors, Editorial Board Members, Columnists, and Other Interested Parties From: Marc Stier, Director, Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center Date: July 10, 2017 Re: Revenue Options to Finish the 2017-18 Budget As legislative leadership and Governor Wolf look to wrap up the revenue portion of the 2017-18 state budget, the remaining negotiations is at least focused on the right subject: finding adequate and sustainable long-term revenues. Unfortunately, rather than work for new recurring revenues, Republican Leadership continues on the irresponsible… Continue reading

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New Estimates of the Loss of Federal Funding to Pennsylvania from the Senate Health Care Bill

  By Uncategorized

The Manatt Health Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have released a new study of the impact of the Senate health care bill, the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017, on the states. Their estimates of the impact of the bill confirms our recent studyshowing that Pennsylvania will suffer devastating reductions in federal funding for Medicaid. The new study provides two sets of estimates of how much federal funding each state loses – one if the state keeps the Medicaid Expansion and a second if it does not. According to the study, if Pennsylvania eliminates the Medicaid Expansion in 2021, the state stands to lose $30.1 billion in federal funding between 2020 and 2026 – $25 billion as a result of the elimination of federal funding for the Medicaid Expansion, and $5.1 billion as a result of the impact of per capita caps on traditional Medicaid. The Manatt /… Continue reading

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S&P to PA: Snap Out of It

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

Remember when, in the movie Moonstruck, the character played by Nicholas Cage tells the character played by Cher that he loves her. And she slaps him in the face and says, “Snap out of it?” Well that’s what the financial firm Standard and Poor’s just told the state of Pennsylvaniayesterday. They, once again, threatened to downgrade our bonds – forcing up the interest rates we pay – if we don’t get our fiscal house in order. They are telling our General Assembly to: Snap out of our reliance on one-year revenues, like licenses for gaming or liquor sales to “balance” our budget. Snap out of our willingness to move money from one fund to another to “balance” our budget. Snap out of our penchant for over-estimating revenues to “balance” our budget. Snap out of our tendency to shift spending from one year to another to “balance” our budget. And most… Continue reading

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PRESS MEMO: New Estimates of the Loss of Federal Funding to Pennsylvania from the Senate Health Care Bill

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

The Manatt Health Group and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have released a study on the impact of the Senate health care bill, the Better Reconciliation Act of 2017, on the states. Their estimates of the impact of the bill confirms our recent study showing that Pennsylvania will suffer devastating reductions in federal funding for Medicaid. It also offers some more fine-grained detail on the nature of these reductions. MEMO To: Editorial Page Editors, Editorial Board Members, Columnists, and Other Interested Parties From: Marc Stier, Director, Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center Date: July 7, 2017 Re: New Estimates of the Loss of Federal Funding to Pennsylvania from the Senate Health Care Bill The Manatt Health Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have released a new study of the impact of the Senate health care bill, the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017, on the states. Their estimates of the impact of the bill confirms… Continue reading

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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 Encourage Vice

  By Politics, US

Marc Stier | 06/30/2017 Blog Note: This is the second of two pieces on the Republicans of my youth.. Part II: Encouraging Vice The Republicans of my youth were not only men of fiscal rectitude, they were men of moral rectitude. I can’t say what they did in private. I’m sure some of them drank from time to time and some drank too much. They probably also gambled from time to time either on a trip to Las Vegas or at the local trotter track, or maybe with a local bookie. But in public they frowned on these vices. They believed that people had a right to make their own choices, but they believed that government had a responsibility to direct people away from behavior that could be dangerous to themselves or others.   And they certainly didn’t think the government should be encouraging drinking or gambling. When the lottery… 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