The Corbett administration is asking the federal government to authorize the expansion of the state’s Medicaid program to serve another 500,000 people.
Healthy Pennsylvania, the reform plan unveiled by the Corbett administration in September, calls for expanding eligibility for Medicaid as envisioned in the federal Affordable Care Act but providing coverage to newly eligible individuals through private insurers
Under the plan, most newly eligible recipients would select state-subsidized insurance through the federal health insurance marketplace and receive the same benefits as regular commercial customers.
Healthy Pennsylvania also calls for streamlined benefits packages, enrollee premiums, and a work search requirement.
The formal unveiling of the plan is linked to the state’s application to the federal government for a waiver from selected federal Medicaid requirements.  While states routinely request such waivers, each waiver is subject to individual scrutiny and negotiation between the state and federal governments after a period of public comment at the state level.
To learn more about the Healthy Pennsylvania proposal, see this Philadelphia Inquirer article.  The administration also has published a description of its proposed application for the federal waiver, including information about how interested parties may comment on the proposal, in the Pennsylvania Bulletin; that notice can be found here.  The complete draft waiver application can be found here.