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Health--it's what we all have in common: whether we're trying to maintain our health through good habits or improve our failing health. "Bridges to Health" is 90.5 WESA's health care reporting initiative examining everything from unintended consequences of the Affordable Care Act to transparency in health care costs; from a lack of access to quality care for minority members of our society to confronting the opioid crisis in our region. It's about our individual health and the well-being of our community.Health care coverage on 90.5 WESA is made possible in part by a grant from the Jewish Healthcare Foundation.

An Update on Governor Corbett's Health Care Plan

Talk Radio News Service

The Corbett Administration is making details of its alternative proposal to the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion available to the public.

The Governor recently held a presser on his health care plan days after releasing it online. The plan, which would allow hundreds of thousands of people to enroll in private health insurance plans subsidized with federal funds, is one step closer to receiving federal review.

90.5 WESA's Capitol Bureau Chief Mary Wilson reports on the plan from Harrisburg and says the proposal is similar to those of other states, but includes a few elements unique to the Commonwealth’s needs.

She says, based on  the description from Corbett's administrators, they're asking for "exceptions from the federal government of how to implement the Medicaid program and how to expand health care coverage to the working poor. But we can’t do that in Pennsylvania without reforms to the existing Medicaid program. It is something that is contested by Democrats and other advocates for poor, health care analysts, but it’s important to keep in mind that Governor Corbett’s doing something that we see a lot of other Republican governors doing.”