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WILKES-BARRE — Gov. Tom Wolf hosted a roundtable discussion in Scranton Wednesday that focused on budget initiatives that will support a new way for Pennsylvania’s economy and job creation.
Also on Monday, Wolf wrote to five Pennsylvania congressmen that serve on two key U.S. House committees to formally ask them to reject the American Health Care Act.
An analysis done by Wolf’s administration says the AHCA would cause serious harm to Pennsylvania seniors, individuals with disabilities and populations with both Medicaid and private insurance.
Wolf requested each congressman to both vote “no” and ensure a more open and transparent process.
In Scranton, Wolf toured Signallamp Health LLC and hosted a roundtable discussion with employees and local leaders. Wolf earlier announced he is running for re-election in 2018.
Signallamp is a healthcare technology start-up that provides chronic care management services and recently established a facility in downtown Scranton that will add 69 new jobs over three years with the help of state funding through the Governor’s Action Team.
In March 2016, Signallamp Health received a funding proposal from the Department of Community and Economic Development that included a $75,000 Pennsylvania First program grant and $54,650 in WEDnetPA funding for employee training.
The project was coordinated by the Governor’s Action Team in collaboration with the Ben Franklin Technology Partners of NEPA, the Lackawanna County Office of Planning and Economic Development and the Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce.
Signallamp Health co-founder and CEO Drew Kearney said Signallamp partners with providers to bring additional clinical capacity, preventative care and IT to allow physicians to address the needs of a larger number of their patients outside of the office setting.
Wolf said he plans on investing in job creation by:
• Partnering with the commonwealth’s research universities and Industrial Resource Centers to accelerate manufacturing technology advancement and adoption, foster manufacturing innovation and commercialization and build a 21st century workforce.
• Creating a new apprenticeship grant program to ensure workers can receive training aligned to business workforce needs, funded with revenue recovered from companies that fail to live up to previous commitments made when they received state assistance.
• Investing $5 million in a manufacturing training-to-career grant program to partner with technical programs and community colleges to develop new training programs that align with their workforce needs.
Wolf tells Congressmen to reject health care plan
Saying the American Health Care Act hurts constituents, especially senior citizens, Wolf sent letters to U.S. Reps. Tim Murphy, Ryan Costello and Mike Doyle, who serve on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and U.S. Reps. Pat Meehan and Mike Kelly, members of the Ways and Means Committee. Each letter details the broad impact to all of Pennsylvania and specific numbers of constituents in their congressional districts.
The American Health Care Act is legislation proposed by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives that they hope will overhaul former President Barack Obama’s signature Affordable Care Act.
“For seven years, Republicans in Washington criticized the Obama Administration for rushing Obamacare through without the appropriate public vetting, and yet Americans are being given less than seven days to fully understand the implications of this legislation on their health and households,” Wolf said in an emailed news release. “The legislation, as it stands today, would disrupt health care access and coverage for millions of Pennsylvanians.”
Wolf said currently there are more than 2.8 million Pennsylvanians enrolled in Medicaid, more than 700,000 of whom have only recently been able to access Medicaid through the expansion that the governor put in place in 2015.
Wolf took particular concern with the impact on older Pennsylvanians, particularly those between the ages of 50 to 64. He said the proposed bill would allow insurance companies to charge seniors five times more than others and would drastically cut subsidies for seniors, especially those with fixed or low incomes and in rural areas.
“Seniors represent one of the fastest growing populations in Pennsylvania and shifting the burden of expensive health care costs on to them to offset costs for the rest of us is unfair and disingenuous,” Wolf said. “These are individuals who have lived and worked in our communities, sometimes for their entire lives, and they will suddenly be at the mercy of health insurance companies who will no longer be restricted from charging them higher premiums than the rest of us.”
• Both the AARP and American Hospital Association have come out against the AHCA, specifically due to its negative impact on older Americans.
• According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, subsides for the average 60-year-old Pennsylvanian would be reduced in all 67 counties for those with incomes of $30,000 or less.
• The vast majority of subsidies for this same population making $40,000 or less would also be reduced. For example, a 60 year old in Berks, Adams or York County with an annual income of $20,000 would see their health care assistance cut by more than $11,000, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation analysis.