Pennsylvania Governor Signs Four Health-Care Bills That Will Reduce Costs, Improve Access a...(to increasing access to health care for ...),Health

The Senate bill was sponsored by Sen. Jake Corman (R) and the HB 838 which mirrored it was sponsored by Rep. Mark Longietti (D).

HB 1089 - Federal COBRA law, which allows those who lose their jobs to continue paying for health insurance through their former employers for a period of time, applies to all employers with 20 or more employees. The concept of providing continuation coverage to small businesses with fewer than 20 employees was initially proposed by Sen. Corman as SB 189. This bill, which was sponsored in the House by Rep. Robert F. Matzie, allows employees of small businesses who lose their jobs to continue receiving their health insurance at their expense for up to nine months.

This is particularly important because the federal stimulus plan permits employees who lose their jobs and who qualify for COBRA to receive a federal government subsidy of 65 percent of the premiums for the coverage, so long as the employee pays the remaining 35 percent. So, in Pennsylvania, any employee of a small business who is terminated after July 10, 2009, and before Jan. 1, 2010, will be eligible for the subsidy. Because of the high cost of individual and continuation health care coverage, this financial assistance is critical to helping these individuals to afford to continue their former employer-based coverage under Mini COBRA.

SB 89 - this bill, also supported in the Governor's Rx for PA, reauthorizes the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council, or PHC4, which is broadly acknowledged as the nation's premier agency of its kind. The work of PHC4 is critical to improving patient safety and health care quality outcomes, as well as health care cost containment, for Pennsylvanians. Health care purchasers, such as businesses and labor unions, use PHC4 data for plan design and cost and quality improvements. The agency had sun
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