No doubt the stories Toomey cited are real; one woman he
spoke of is even from Lancaster County. But I find Sen. Toomey’s outrage
misplaced and poorly-timed.
See, I didn’t hear a peep from the newly-elected senator in
2011 when Gov. Corbett decided his first action as governor should be the elimination
adultBasic -- which if you remember was the low cost health care plan,
covering for over 40,000 working Pennsylvanians. Or a year later when the Insurance Department
reported that 40% of those kicked off adultBasic and forced to sign up for new coverage that cost them
more; or when 88,000
kids were kicked off Medical Assistance.
Nor have I heard him call on the governor to expand Medicaid, which would be a way to cover over a half million Pennsylvania residents and the easiest way to shrink the list of uninsured Pennsylvania’s by over 50%.
If Pat Toomey (and others) were actually for covering more
Pennsylvanians and stimulating job growth in the Commonwealth he’d join with
the rest of us calling on Gov. Corbett to expand Medicaid.
While Sen. Toomey was admonishing Sebelius on Capitol Hill,
PA’s other Senator
Bob Casey was calling on Gov. Corbett to accept Medicaid Expansion, like
the governors of Ohio, New Jersey, Michigan and Arizona (see where I’m going
here) have.
Sadly, Casey’s request will likely fall on deaf ears, as
Gov. Corbett is busy on a 10 day tour of Pennsylvania in an attempt to rewrite
his abysmal record of governing over the past 3 years.
