Lawsuit seeks adultBasic renewal

by robert swift (Harrisburg Bureau Chief)
Published: March 15, 2011

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HARRISBURG - A lawsuit filed Monday seeks intervention by a state court to reprieve a state health insurance program for low-income adults that ended two weeks ago.

Several recipients of the adultBasic program want Commonwealth Court to order Gov. Tom Corbett and state lawmakers to provide new funding to continue the program.

They said the Corbett administration's decision to end the program Feb. 28 violates a 2001 state law requiring the use of annual state payments from tobacco companies to maintain adultBasic, considered a last-resort coverage for adults who had lost health insurance and met income guidelines.

When the program ended, nearly 42,000 adults lost health coverage. Another 500,000 Pennsylvanians were enrolled on a waiting list to join the program.

"Even though it (adultBasic) was protected by law, it is now gone," said Cheryl Stern, one of three plaintiffs from western Pennsylvania. "I'm afraid my only option is to live with the risk of being uninsured."

The class action lawsuit filed by a Pittsburgh law firm asks the court to order Treasury officials not to distribute a scheduled payment on April 15 of $370 million in Tobacco Settlement Funds until a ruling is handed down on the merits of the case.

State law provides that 30 percent of the annual payment, which is usually in the $300 million to $400 million range, go to adultBasic and for Medicaid assistance for workers with disabilities.

That 2001 law remains on the books, even though for the last six years, the main source of funding for the program has been financial contributions from the surpluses maintained by the four Blue Cross insurers in Pennsylvania that was made available under a 2005 state law.

State Auditor General Jack Wagner recently said the state should turn again to tobacco payments to extend adultBasic until 2014 while other long-term funding remedies are sought.

The Corbett administration has said the program ended Feb. 28 because that's when the funding from the Blues ran out.

A timetable for action on the lawsuit will be up to the judge assigned to the case, said attorney William Caroselli.

Contact the writer: rswift@timesshamrock.com

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