Rep. Matt Baker

PRSRT STDU.S. POSTAGEPAIDHARRISBURG, PAPERMIT NO. 529

WSSTAL CUSTOMER

Friday, June 1110 a.m. to 2 p.m.Wellsboro Area High School

Dominating the news in recent months is President BarackObama’s proposed government-run health care system. Ap-parently, as more information is made public about the plan,more and more citizens are becoming outraged. In fact, inMassachusetts (an overwhelmingly Democratic state) thecitizenry elected a Republican senator for the first time in morethan three decades after he campaigned on strong oppositionto the Obama health care plan.Clearly, more and more people across the country are ex-pressing their concerns about a government-run health careplan, and what that would mean in terms of cost, access andquality of the health care they could receive. Massachusettsadopted a health care plan, which the Obama administrationincluded as some of its main principles, and after severelystraining the state’s budget and having insurance premiumsincrease by 8 percent to 12 percent in a single year, the peoplechose a new senator who would speak loud and clear in Wash-ington, D.C., against a similar nationwide health care plan.n an effort to protect the rights of the citizens of Pennsyl-vania, I have introduced House Bill 2053, the “Health CareFreedom Act,” which would protect your right to access privatemedical care, and prohibit government from penalizing you for not purchasing bureaucrat-approved insurance. My legisla-tion would work to preserve the patient-doctor relationship aswell as individual rights to not take part in a government-runhealth care plan. However, my legislation would still allowindividuals to participate in a universal health care plan if theyso chose.ouse Bill 2053 provides choice, not mandates. By re-quiring individuals and employers to take part in a universal,single-payer health care system, we are harming patients andthreatening our fragile economy. The Obama administrationwants to establish a mandatory, government-run health caresystem that will take medical decisions out of the hands of doc-tors and patients and put them in the hands of bureaucrats.A federally mandated health care system would erode thequality of health care in America, and it would also place anenormous financial cost on a citizenry still coping with a reces-sion. In fact, it is estimated that the federal health care plancurrently being discussed in Washington, D.C., would costthe Commonwealth more than $1 billion. With Pennsylvaniaalready facing a multi-million dollar budget deficit this year,the ramifications of such an additional financial burden wouldbe staggering.On Jan. 27 at the Capi-tol in Harrisburg, I hosteda rally where we heardfrom other state legisla-tors, a Pennsylvania con-gressman, a doctor and awoman who experienceda government-run healthcare system while livingin the United Kingdom.All of these people haveexpressed a strong desireto stay out of a universalfederal health care planand to prevent the state of Pennsylvania from enact-ing similar mandates.With the introduction of House Bill 2053, Pennsylvania joins more than 35 other states that have either introducedor announced legislation to block state or federal health caremandates.The Health Care Freedom Act is just one of several healthcare measures developed by the House Republican PolicyCommittee’s Health Care Task Force, of which I am a mem-ber.In Pennsylvania, we are fortunate that 92 percent of thepopulation has access to health insurance, through employer-paid benefits or government services such as Medicare,Medicaid, CHIP or adultBasic. However, we are continuing tolook for ways to reach the other 8 percent and provide themwith affordable, quality health care as well.For information on alternative health care reforms and solu-tions developed by the House Republican Policy Committee’sHealth Care Task Force, go to

healthcareforpafamilies.com

The Health Care Debate Continues in Washington and Pennsylvania

I am hosting the event with the Elder ervces or roup o te oga oun-ty Partnership for Community Health.msson s ree. or more normaton,contact my district ofﬁces.

Ma r k Yo u r Ca le nda r s fo r t he

2 0 1 0 Se n io r E x po!

Rep. Matt Baker speaks at a rallypromoting his Health Care FreedomAct legislation, which would preservethe patient-doctor relationship andtheir health care decision-makingprocess.

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Pennsylvania Health Care Reform Options

As chairman of e ouse eatand Human ServicesCommittee, I think it ismportant to provideou with informationon reforms that have been introducedin the House to help improve theeat care system n ennsyvana.The following proposals have beeneveope y te ouse epucanPolicy Committee’s Health Care TaskForce, of which I am also a member:PA BasicCare:Provides an afford-able, low-cost insurance product.Offers an affordable coverage op-tion in the private insurance marketfor individuals and employers with nowatng st or eucte.Individual Tax Credits:roves a$1,000 tax credit to individuals whoseempoyer oes not prove eatinsurance coverage if they purchaseter own eat nsurance coverage.Employer Tax Credits:rovides taxcredits to small businesses with 50employees or less who provide healthnsurance coverage.Encourages employers to provideeat care or ter empoyeesPrevents crowd-out, wherebyempoyers stop provng eat nsur-ance to employeesDisease Management Tax Credits:Provides per employee tax credit for employers with fewer than 50 em-ployees who offer health care policieswc ncue sease managementprotocols.ncourages consumers to ave astake in their health careowers costs y reucng osptauseCost Transparency:Re-enacts thePA Health Care Cost ContainmentCouncil and requires them to publishhealth care costs. Requires medicalcarges an remursement rates or Medicaid, CHIP and adultBasic to beposte eectroncay.Allows consumers to make in-formed decisions regarding their health careeeps te maret compettveReigns in the cost of health careadultBasic Retool:ows morePennsylvanians access to the adult-asc program y estasng a s-ing scale premium based on incomeand requires the Department to verifyeligibility every six months.Removes barriers for eligibleadults to enroll in adultBasicHelps to lower the cost of care byecreasng emergency room useExpansion of Federally QualifiedHealth Centers:Invests $25 million for the expansion of Federally QualifiedHealth Centers, hospital-based clinicsetc. to ncrease access to prmary anprenatal care.Provides a medical and dentalhomeIncreases access to primary healthHelps to lower the cost of care byecreasng emergency room useDental Provider Incentive:mprovesdental access for Medical Assistance(MA) patients by establishing a con-tracted annual supplemental salary torecent dental graduates, who dedicatea certain portion of their practice toserving MA clients.rngs entsts nto communteswith a needroves ncentves to stuentswho pursue higher education andtranng n entstryEstablishes quality oral healthcare servces across an mproveshealth care to MA patients*Allied Health Professional LoanForgiveness:Establishes the Physi-can oan etenton orgvenessProgram whereby allied health profes-sonas wo compete tranng n teCommonwealth and agree to practicemecne n mecay unerserveareas will receive a portion of their school loan paid for by the Common-wealth.Encourages allied health profes-sionals who graduate to stay in theCommonwealthroves meca care n neeeareasHealth Information Technology:Proposes a public/private partnershipto share costs of bringing technologyonline for the prevention of medicalerrors and greater efficiency.-Provides better quality health careservices-Provides seamless access tomeca recors*Health Care Freedom Act:re-serves the freedoms of individuals topurcase prvate eat care nsuranceand choose their own health care.*Affordable Health Insurance Act:Provides a tax credit for the purchaseof more affordable Health Savings Ac-count (HSA) eligible policies.-argets te segments o te unn-sured population who need and canaor nsurance ut coose not topurchase coverage.-Permits flexible rewards for healthylifestyles, eliminates unnecessarystate an oca premum taxes anallows for more flexibility in plan de-sgns.*Health Insurance Purchase fromOut of State:ou aow te un-insured to access different carriersan more coces y aowng oter states to sell their plans within theCommonwealth. This will enablePennsylvania’s uninsured to custom-ize and purchase the benefit packagethat best suits their needs.*Health Commissioner Study of Insurance:he Pennsylvania Healthommssoner, upon conuctng a re-view, will report to the General Assem-y on wat canges to ennsyvanalaw and regulation would be neces-sary n orer to enae consumers nthe Commonwealth to purchase out-of-state health products, along with aproposed timeline for implementationof such changes.For more information on these andoter reorms create troug teHouse Republican Policy Committee’seat are as orce, vst

ea t - careforpafamilies.com

*These legislative initiatives have beenauthored by Rep. Matt Baker, Republicanchairman of the House Health and HumanServices Committee.

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Governor Delivers Annual Budget Address

On Feb. 9, Gov. Ed Rendell gave his annual budget address toa joint session of the House and Senate, at which time he proposedincreasing government spending by $1.2 billion.t te economy contnung to ag an te governor contnung torequest more spending, it looks like we are in for another extremelydifficult year. As of the end of January, Pennsylvania was 374 millionbehind projections for revenue collections, and January marked the21st consecutive month the state has failed to meet these revenueprojections.Compounding our economic troubles are empty state savingsaccounts, like the Rainy Day Fund; federal stimulus funds that areset to expire at the end of next year; a looming spike in the employer contribution of the public pension system; and predictions the statewill end the fiscal year with a significant budget gap.ow, even wt a te nanca proems our ommonweat aces,he governor is requesting an increase in state spending by 4 percent.eeve t s scay rresponse to urter ncrease spenng wenwe will end the current year with a deficit.Following is a breakdown of the priorities the governor outlinedduring his budget address:

Spending:

The governor has proposed a $1.2 billion increase inspending using $26.27 billion in state dollars and $2.76 billion in fed-eral stimulus funds. It is important to note that $800 million of thesefederal funds have not yet been approved.

Sales Tax Expansion:

The governor is proposing a reduction of e saes tax rate rom percent to percent, ut wou expan teax to cover 74 items and services that are currently exempt. Thisexpansion would not apply to food, clothing or prescription medication.owever, it would include taxing home heating fuels, water and sewer servces, eat care servces, persona ygene proucts an non-prescription drugs. The extra revenue raised from this tax would beset aside in a reserve account called the Stimulus Transition Reserveund to help offset the future termination of stimulus funds.

Basic Education:

e governor s cang or . percent ncreasein basic education funding. Most school districts in Tioga and Bradfordcountes wou potentay ave a percent to . percent ncrease nfunding. I will continue my calls for a fairer distribution of educationdollars in an effort to prevent further skyrocketing property taxes.

Budget Cuts:

The governor is calling for reductions to the budgetsof the Department of Environmental Protection ($3.8 million cut), theepartment of Health ($7 million cut), the Department of Agriculture($5.4 million cut), the Department of Labor and Industry ($3.1 million)and the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources ($1 mil-on cut.

Budget Increases:

e governor wou ncrease unng or asceducation, county child welfare programs, mental retardation services,services to senior citizens, the state police, the Department of Cor-rections, the Department of Community and Economic Development,and the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.Of course, the governor’s budget address only serves as a startingpoint in the budget negotiating process. I am looking forward to learn-ing more about the ﬁscal forecast for Pennsylvania as we continueconuctng uget earngs n te ouse, an worng to prouce tebest budget possible for the state that keeps government spendinguner contro an oes not ncrease taxes on ar-worng ames.

Expansion of GamingIndustry Wrong Move forPennsylvania

As you are probably aware, Pennsylva-na recenty aopte a aw to aow taegames at slots parlors. I voted against thisexpansion of gambling for several reasons,including moral grounds, the social ills thatfollow the gambling industry, the lack of neee reorms to te orgna gamng aw,and the broken promise of using gamingrevenue or property tax ree.Since casinos have been establishedn ennsyvana, more tan , peopehave voluntarily put themselves on a listasng casnos not to et tem game nheir establishments. This demonstratese cear arm gamng acton s av-ing on many families across Pennsylvania.Although no studies have been done yet inennsyvana, we ave seen a rse n oter states of bankruptcy, suicides, crime andvorce oowng te ntroucton o gam-bling establishments. This is not somethingthink benefits our state, and I have beenopposed to legalize gambling since 2004,wen vote aganst te orgna gamnglaw to legalize slot machines.owever, t s aso wort notng tatwhen slots parlors were legalized in 2004,it was with the promise of property tax relief.ot ony ave we not seen meanngu prop-erty tax relief from slots, but this legislationoes not aocate a me o tae gamesmoney to the Property Tax Relief Fund untilhe Rainy Day Fund reaches a threshold of $750 million. As our Rainy Day Fund has aero aance toay, t w ey e a ecaeor more until homeowners see any financialbenefit from table games.Along with these disappointments, I wasalso concerned by the lack of importantan necessary gamng reorms n te taegames legislation. Some of the issuesneeng to e aresse ncue potcacontributions to public officials from gam-ing interests, allocation of the local shareof revenue, licensing standards and therelationship between the Gaming ControlBoard and casino interests.e w see n tme ow muc revenuehis gaming expansion brings into the Com-monwealth, but with surrounding statesmovn to eaze amn o not tn ter r