Health Care Reform

HAP has long supported efforts to ensure coverage for all individuals. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) framework—which offers subsidized coverage through health care insurance exchanges, combined with expanded access to Medicaid—provides the most viable pathway to expand coverage and reduce costs. More than 1.1 million Pennsylvanians have benefited from access to coverage. Millions have benefited from consumer protections—coverage for pre-existing conditions, no lifetime limits, minimum essential benefits.

In Pennsylvania, the ACA’s individual and small group health insurance plans remain stable. For 2019, in aggregate, individual plans showed a 2.3 percent rate decrease statewide and an average 2.6 percent increase for small group market plans. All but ten Pennsylvania counties had more than one insurer offering coverage and additional insurers joined the individual market in 30 Pennsylvania counties.

Despite those successes, the Administration and some lawmakers have challenged the law and taken steps to weaken consumer protections. There is increasing conversation about proposals to establish a government-run, single-payer, universal Medicare program.


Advocacy

HAP’s advocacy strategy to ensure affordable, comprehensive coverage for as many Pennsylvanians as possible includes:

  • Partnering with partners including the Pennsylvania Insurance Department and other health care stakeholders to increase enrollment through education and outreach strategies
  • Working with the state Congressional delegation and federal policymakers to maintain comprehensive health coverage and oppose policies that weaken coverage provisions
  • Supporting the Shapiro administration’s efforts to enforce consumer protections in the ACA, and to nurture a stable insurance market
  • Supporting the creation of the Pennsylvania Insurance Department's state-based health insurance exchange


Rural Health Model

Health care reform goals include improving overall health and lowering costs with an emphasis on public health and wellness, disease management, and fewer hospital admissions. HAP supports the state’s Rural Health Model, or rural global budget pilot, which officially launched on January 1, 2019, with five participating hospitals and five participating payors.

The pilot changes the way rural hospitals are paid in order to:

  • Provide predictable hospital finances, prevent hospital closures, and avoid the loss of hospital services and jobs
  • Reward hospitals financially for improving the health of communities and reducing the need for intensive—and expensive—acute care

With predictable annual budgets, hospitals can invest in the health care services communities need most, focusing on effective ways to improve health and reduce the need for expensive emergency and inpatient care.
 

Rural Health Redesign Center

HAP supported legislation aimed at improving the financial stability of rural hospitals and establishing the Pennsylvania Rural Health Redesign Center, which would serve as the governing body of the new Rural Health Model, beginning January 1, 2019.
 

HAP Contacts

For more information, contact Jolene Calla, Esq., vice president, finance & legal affairs, or Kate Slatt, vice president, policy & care delivery. Media inquiries should be directed to Kim Yakowski, manager, media relations.

 

HAP News


November 20, 2024

Pennsylvanians See Billions in Economic, Community Benefits from Hospitals in their Communities

As Pennsylvania ages and looks to revitalize its economy, hospitals are more important than ever to the health and vitality of communities. To meet these needs, the commonwealth’s hospitals have invested nearly $10 billion in strengthening the health of their communities, while supporting 1 in 9 jobs statewide and 19 percent of the commonwealth’s gross domestic product, an analysis released today by The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania (HAP) indicates.

November 15, 2024

Measles Makes Worldwide Comeback

There were an estimated 10.3 million cases of measles during 2023, a 20 percent increase from the prior year.

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