Pennsylvania health insurance

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status report:
Pennsylvania state health insurance exchange

What progress is being made in setting up its federally-mandated Pennsylvania state health insurance exchange?"

About state health insurance exchanges

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How did Pennsylvania officials vote on health reform?

H.R.2: Repealing the Health Care Bill

#14

Date of Vote: 1/19/2011 Status: House passed 245-189, 1 not voting

HOUSE|SENATE

1/19/2011--Passed House amended. Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act - Repeals the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, effective as of its enactment. Restores provisions of law amended by such Act. Repeals the health care provisions of the Health Care and Education and Reconciliation Act of 2010, effective as of the Act's enactment. Restores provisions of law amended by the Act's health care provisions. [more]

Yes (12)

• Lou Barletta
• Charles Dent
• Michael Fitzpatrick
• Jim Gerlach
• Mike Kelly
• Thomas Marino

• Patrick Meehan
• Tim Murphy
• Joseph Pitts
• Todd Platts
• William Shuster
• Glenn Thompson

Our
Pick

No (7)

• Jason Altmire
• Robert Brady
• Mark Critz
• Michael Doyle
• Chaka Fattah
• Tim Holden

• Allyson Schwartz

how healthy is living in Pennsylvania?

Pennsylvania rose one spot from last year to be ranked as the 27th healthiest state to live in, according to the 2010 America's Health Rankings® by the United Health Foundation.

The good news:

• Pennsylvania ranks in the top ten states for high school graduation rate, its geographic disparity, and children in poverty (that is, a LOW rate of children in poverty).
• The state has seen decreases in both the rate of preventable hospitalizations (down in the last year from 77.6 to 73.7 discharges per 1,000 enrollees in Medicare) and in the rate of deaths due to cardiovascular disease (down since 2000 from 367.4 to 288.7 deaths per 100,000 individuals of the population).

The bad news:

• Pennsylvania has one of the highest levels of air pollution in the country.
• Other challenges include relatively low levels of public funding, at $53 per person, and immunization coverage, at 87.8 percent of infants aged 19 to 35 months.
• Although Pennsylvania’s rate of uninsured population is relatively low, it showed an increase in the past year from 9.7 percent to 10.6 percent of the overall population.

Pennsylvania’s best and worst category rankings:

• High school graduation – 8th
• Geographic disparity – 8th
• Uninsured population – 9th
• Immunization coverage – 38th
• Public health funding – 39th
• Air pollution – 48th

more details

• See the United Health Foundation's latest findings on Pennsylvania.
• Trust for America's Health ia another source for key Pennsylvania health quality findings. In addition, 2010's federal health reform, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), included the creation of a prevention fund to provide more than $16 billion over the next 10 years to invest in effective, proven prevention efforts, like childhood obesity prevention and tobacco cessation, and the site has a report on how it impacts Pennsylvania here.

get local health results

State snapshot too large? Get county-by-county health rankings for Pennsylvania, from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Population Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin.

does Pennsylvania have a health insurance high risk pool?

No, Pennsylvania does not offer its own risk pool for its citizens who are medically uninsurable.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Starting in 2010, Pennsylvania started offering health care insurance coverage to residents through the federally established temporary high-risk pool program. To find out more about Pennsylvania's participation, click here.

Risk pools are state-sponsored programs to help people with a history of medical problems in their family to purchase coverage. These pools are for people who can afford to buy health insurance, but are not able to get underwritten in the private market because of a pre-existing health condition. These programs can vary significantly from state to state in price, benefits and number of people served. Often insurance companies doing business in the state are required to contribute to the pool to keep it in the black. In the best cases, they allow people to be able to switch jobs or become self-employed without the fear of losing their health insurance coverage. Read more about risk pools here.

how to find health insurance in Pennsylvania

Cover The Uninsured is a national effort to highlight the fact that too many Americans are living without health insurance and to demand solutions from our nation's leaders. Read more information on its efforts. It is a project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

• Cover The Uninsured's facts on the uninsured in Pennsylvania and all other states.
• The Foundation for Health Coverage Education's guide on how to find health insurance in Pennsylvania.
• Materiales En Español – Guías para encontrar cobertura de seguro de salud.

Georgetown's Pennsylvania health insurance guide

Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute has researched and written state-by-state guides for finding and keeping health insurance. It updates these guides as federal and state policies change. A number of non-profit organizations help fund its research. Learn more about the Health Policy Institute.

Review Georgetown's guide for Pennsylvania.

Health insurance plan report cards for Pennsylvania

The National Committee for Quality Assurance is a private, non-profit organization that, among other things, provides health care plan report cards for consumers.

Go here to search for Pennsylvania health insurance plan report cards.

Pennsylvania government health insurance resources

Pennsylvania Insurance Department – The State of Pennsylvania's department of insurance provides official information all types of insurance.

Health Insurance Information for Pennsylvania Consumers–From the Pennsylvania Insurance Department.

Childrens Health Insurance Program – CHIP is Pennsylvania's program intended to provide health insurance for children of working families who otherwise could not afford it.