Pennsylvania Slashes State Health Insurance, In Contrast To Mass.

NPR reports today that Pennsylvania's entire state-funded health insurance program for low-income adults is about to be cut, leaving 42,000 members uninsured. Nearly 500,000 people had been on the waiting list, hoping to join the program.

States around the country are facing similar cuts in this season of exploding budget crises. In California, Gov. Jerry Brown is proposing to slash more than a billion-dollar swath out of state health programs, as reported here.

Not here in Massachusetts. As WBUR's Martha Bebinger reported earlier this month:

In a tough budget year, the Patrick administration is out with a strategy to maintain subsidized coverage for 174,000 low to moderate income residents. While states around the country are trimming government health insurance, Secretary for Administration and Finance Jay Gonzalez says Massachusetts will preserve near universal coverage.

“Our goal is to continue to provide coverage to everyone who is eligible for it, continue our nation leading record in access to affordable health care and to do in a way where we aren’t cutting benefits,” he says.

It remains to be seen how the legislature will react to the Patrick administration's plan.