HARRISBURG โ Two weeks after enrollment began, the state has received tens of thousands of applications for health care coverage by way of the โHealthy PAโ program, which offers subsidized, Medicaid-like insurance through private carriers to low-income Pennsylvanians.
As of the end of the day Wednesday, the state had received applications from nearly 44,000 households, according to the Department of Human Services. It also has received an additional 30,000 household applications referrals through the federal health care marketplace.
That doesnโt necessarily mean all those applicants will be eligible to receive coverage, though likely many of them will be, said Kait Gillis, a DHS spokeswoman.
Enrollment opened Dec. 1. About 600,000 Pennsylvanians are estimated to be eligible for coverage.
People trying to sign up for coverage might have gotten busy phone signals on the first day, but callers should be able to get through now, Ms. Gillis said.
The stateโs online system for processing application seems to running fairly smoothly, with no major glitches or breakdowns, said Antoinette Kraus, director of the Pennsylvania Health Access Network, one of several nonprofit groups across the state helping people enroll in Healthy PA or other coverage options that may be available to them through the federal marketplace.
โOur staff is working around the clockโ to sign up eligible Pennsylvanians, she said.
โEvery person that we get enrolled is a person who didnโt have health care coverage before this,โ said Ms. Gillis. โWe look forward to enrolling all 600,000.โ
Gov.-elect Tom Wolf has said he hopes to dismantle Healthy PA in favor of a more straightforward expansion of Medicaid as permitted under the Affordable Care Act, but officials have pledged that no one would lose coverage in any transition.
Still of concern to the private insurance plans participating in Healthy PA is the fact that the federal government hasnโt yet approved benefit packages and contracts, said Michael Rosenstein, who coordinates the Coalition of Medical Assistance Managed Care Organizations, an association of the stateโs managed care plans.
First Published: December 15, 2014, 5:00 a.m.
