By PaDems.com

– Yesterday, Tom Corbett announced an out-of-touch health care plan. Instead of proposing a common-sense plan to provide health care access to 500,000 more Pennsylvanians, Corbett’s proposal will reduce coverage, create obstacles, and increase costs for the the Commonwealth’s most-vulnerable. It is no wonder that Corbett’s plan has been roundly criticized.

Philadelphia Daily News: Conservative lawmaker rips ‘one term Tom’ Corbett
“State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, the conservative Republican from Butler County said Tuesday morning on The Chris Stigall Show that Gov. Corbett was doomed to be ‘one term Tom’ in the wake of his decision to accept federal Medicaid money to expand health-care coverage from the working poor. Metcalfe said the governor had betrayed the conservative principals he stands for by enlarging an entitlement. ‘I think he’s done,’ Metcalfe said on the show, broadcast on WPHT 1210 AM ‘The Big Talker’ out of Philadelphia.” [Philadelphia Daily News, 9/17/13]

Newsworks: Corbett proposes Medicaid health plan ― with conditions and changes
“‘Private insurance tends to cost more than Medicaid because Medicaid controls the prices it pays providers,’ [Robert Field, a health law professor at Drexel University] said. ‘it has very strict fee-schedules for doctors and hospitals, and it pays the lowest druge prices of any insurance arrangement in the country.'” [Newsworks, 9/16/13]

The Sentinel: Corbett’s Medicaid plan concerns lawmakers, officials
“Antoinette Kraus, director of the Pennsylvania Health Access Network cautioned the governor against stripping protections and benefits from seniors, children and people with disabilities who are currently covered by Medicaid. ‘Expanding coverage for some while reducing coverage for others is not a responsible plan,” she said. “The governor should not put more obstacles in the path of hardworking Pennsylvanians or set the price of coverage so high that it remains unaffordable.’”
[The Sentinel, 9/17/13]

Politico: Pennsylvania to take Medicaid funds, with a catch
“Joan Alker, director of Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families, said the success of Corbett’s plan in Pennsylvania ‘really comes down to whether or not he’s sincere about wanting to extend coverage to the newly eligible.’…Alker said his decision to link Medicaid to employment status would be an unprecedented change in the safety net structure. ‘I don’t believe people’s health care should be conditioned upon their job search requirements,’ she said.” [Politico, 9/17/13]

Johnstown Tribune-Democrat: Corbett puts conditions on Medicaid deal
“Corbett is still ‘putting ideology above common sense’ by insisting on things like the work-search requirement and the need to shift people into the exchanges rather than Medicaid, said Neil Bisno, president of the SEIU Health Care of PA, a union representing health care workers. ‘The quickest, simplest and best way is to expand Medicaid’ Bisno said.” [Johnstown Tribune-Democrat, 9/17/13]

York Dispatch: York response less than enthusiastic about Corbett plan
“Dr. Kenneth Woerthwein, a member of the NAACP and National Physicians Alliance, is a retired physician who ran a family practice in York from the mid-1970s to 2009. A proponent of the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion, he doesn’t understand how Corbett’s plan will address issues for the poor, he said. The thing is, many people in the group are already working,’ Woerthwein said, whether it be in home nursing care, fast food or retail. ‘For them, it makes no sense to implement something like that.’ It’s also illogical for them to pay monthly premiums, he said. ‘You barely have enough money to pay for basic necessities,’ Woerthwein said.” [York Dispatch, 9/17/13]

Source: http://www.padems.com/press/tom-corbetts-irresponsible-health-care-plan-faces-wide-criticism

By The PA. AFL-CIO

– Reports began to surface last week that Governor Corbett was finally considering a plan to accept Medicaid expansion in Pennsylvania under the Affordable Care Act. This caused some widespread and ultimately premature optimism that Corbett was going to follow the lead of 40 State Senators and do the right thing for Pennsylvania.

Unfortunately, the details reveal that Corbett’s proposal is designed to be a massive giveaway to private insurance companies, while weakening even our existing Medicaid program. This proposal is a kick in the gut to Pennsylvania’s uninsured and working poor.

E-Mail Governor Corbett at: http://act.aflcio.org/c/236/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=7127 And Tell Him To Accept REAL Medicaid Expansion

First, Corbett proposes accepting new Federal dollars, not to expand the Medicaid program, but to subsidize the purchase of private insurance in the State. This would ensure that a portion of our tax dollars are needlessly diverted to the profits of insurance companies, and that fewer uninsured working Pennsylvanians would get the health coverage they need.

Second, Corbett wants the Federal Government to approve changes to Pennsylvania’s Medicaid program that will allow the State to charge premiums to working age adults who are enrolled in Medicaid, or who receive subsidized private insurance through new Federal dollars. That would include charging premiums to working-age adults who are already on Medicaid, including the disabled.

Third, Corbett wants to establish a work-search requirement for Medicaid recipients, and for those who would receive new subsidized coverage under this ‘expansion.’ This concept is completely tone-deaf and insulting, even by Corbett’s standards (the same Corbett who earlier this year said that unemployment is high because the unemployed are all on drugs). If Corbett cared to understand the issue, he would know that the overwhelming majority Pennsylvanians who would be eligible for Medicaid expansion, as well as many current Medicaid patients, are already employed in full-time jobs. The work-search requirement is just another thinly veiled attack on the beneficiaries of government programs, to suggest that they are lazy and do not contribute to society.

This is a fact that Corbett and his allies should know well, because it is through their concerted efforts to drive down wages and keep them low, that we have this situation where so many full time workers are forced to be dependent on public assistance to meet their basic medical care needs, and those of their children.

Governor Corbett cannot possibly believe that the Obama administration will authorize this ‘compromise’ deal, certainly not when Medicaid expansion, with no strings attached, passed our State Senate in the spring by a vote of 40-10.

If Corbett truly believed in creating jobs in Pennsylvania, growing our economy, and ensuring that hundreds of thousands of additional Pennsylvanians have health coverage, then he would have accepted Medicaid expansion a year ago, instead of waiting until now to propose a plan that is nothing but an insult to Pennsylvania’s workers, and a taxpayer-funded giveaway to corporations.

E-Mail Governor Corbett at: http://act.aflcio.org/c/236/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=7127 And Tell Him To Accept REAL Medicaid Expansion

Source: http://www.paaflcio.org/?p=2771

SEIU District 1201 is hosting a public forum on the crisis in the Philadelphia school system, tonight September 16th at 6:00 PM:

The Crisis in Philadelphia Public Schools: Real Stories from Students, Parents, and Teachers in Philadelphia

Monday, September 16th, 6:00 – 7:30 PM

SEIU District 1201 building, 455 N. 5th St (below Spring Garden), Philadelphia, 19123

Panelists:

Helen Gym, Parents United for Public Education
Kia Hinton, Parent of W.C. Longstreth students and Action United Education Chair
Jerry Jordan, President, Philadelphia Federation of Teachers
Mark Tyler, Pastor of Mother Bethel AME Church
Kiara Lynn Garcia, KCAPA High School Student

Moderator: Rosemarie Harris, Philadelphia Home and School Council

A Message From John J. Dougherty, Business Manager of IBEW #98

Philadelphia Firefighters and Paramedics Union Local 22 delivered more than 35,000 signed and notarized petitions to the members of Council in furtherance of their campaign to place a Charter Change question on the ballot that would require this and future mayors to win a 2/3 approval vote of City Council before challenging future arbitration awards for first responders.

It’s about bringing fairness and balance to the process, which currently is neither fair nor balanced.

IBEW Local 98 was proud to have provided a helping hand to Local 22 President Joe Schulle and his team during the petition drive.

With the continued support and leadership of City Councilmen Jim Kenney, Bobby Henon, Mark Squilla and many others, the Charter Change question will be on the May 2014 ballot and the public will vote it into law. It’s simply not fair that one man can defy the spirit and intent of the State’s Act 111 Arbitration Law and withhold a fair contract for more than four long years, especially when the first responders abide by the law by not striking and continuing to risk their lives to save ours.

Congratulations to Philly’s firefighters for finally getting economic justice from the Nutter administration. Now it’s time to ensure that our first responders never again have to wait four long years to get the contract they earned and deserve.

Support the Charter Change referendum!

Support our police officers, firefighters and paramedics!

The Below editorial was received from Vincent Esposito, a member of Carpenter’s Local #1856, who is also in the U.S. Army, who shared his point of view of an allegedly staggering situation that he states currently exists in the U.S. military.

“I am a member of Carpenters Local Union 1856, and I am currently in the Army. I wanted to share what I have noticed here. We are worked until exhaustion, yet our own soldiers, at the lower pay rates of e-4 to e-1 are regularly on food stamps if they have a small family. We are a country where our Military members that are already being paid by the government need MORE government help to stay above water.

Union’s provide the USA’s citizens with an honest day’s wages for an honest day’s work, and your members don’t need the government’s aid. It seems even our government cannot grasp what the unions have. They have what I call the “Walmart Complex” where the Federal government pays it’s soldiers so little that they must then turn to state funded welfare, which is funded by the federal government anyway. And the vicious cycle continues. Thank The USA For Our Unions, without them, good hard working men like my brother, myself, my grandfather and my father probably would not have had a fair chance in this world. Feel free to share.”

Vincent Esposito
U.S. Army, Carpenter’s Local #1856

PHILLYLBOR.COM EDITORIAL REPLY: How can a staggering situation like this exist where some American soldiers need to live in a welfare state in order to make ends meet for their families while they are “still” in the U.S. military? I can’t imagine asking people to be on call for the purpose of potentially sacrificing their lives for our freedom and them having to be on welfare to do it?

If this is true, it’s a disgrace of epic proportions that needs to be remedied immediately in order for all of us, as Americans, to be able to wake up every morning, in the wake of the freedom that we enjoy because of the heroics of generations of these young military heroes, and have the nerve to look at ourselves in the mirror while we are brushing our teeth.

As per the sentiment of Vincent’s letter, Thank God For Unions in America, where a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay is worth fighting for! Evidently, the dignity of protecting our freedom isn’t worth as much!