Pennsylvania’s disabled worker program will continue

July 25--The Corbett administration is rescinding its plan to end a program that provides low-cost health insurance to working people with disabilities.

The Medical Assistance for Workers With Disabilities program was to be terminated Jan. 1 under Gov. Tom Corbett's Healthy Pennsylvania Medicaid reform plan, saving $7 million. The program serves about 34,000 people across the state.

Department of Public Welfare spokeswoman Kait Gillis said the administration took the program, called MAWD, off the chopping block after considering the thousands of public comments it received when Healthy Pennsylvania was proposed last year and while negotiating with the federal government. The state needs approval from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services before Healthy Pennsylvania can take effect.

Gillis said the administration also said keeping MAWD would support Healthy Pennsylvania's objectives of supporting employment while meeting the needs of people with disabilities.

Advocates for the disabled were happy and relieved to learn that the program would be saved.

"For the people that we represent, we're pleased that this program is going to be preserved," said Chava Kintisch, director of Civic and Government Affairs for the Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania. The program "is very important for competitive employment and participation in community life."

In an email, the Pennsylvania Health Law Project thanked DPW Secretary Beverly Mackereth for sparing MAWD, saying its termination would have had a "devastating" impact on disabled working people.

Network representatives and other advocates for the disabled have lobbied strenuously against termination of the program. People in the program are among the working poor: Their income is too high to qualify for Medicaid under standard rules but too low for workers to afford insurance that covers their specialized and costly health needs.

With the assistance program, disabled workers pay premiums equal to 5 percent of their income and receive Medicaid coverage.

Advocates argued that eliminating the program would cause some disabled people to become uninsured and would give them a disincentive to work so that their income would be low enough to qualify for Medicaid.

tim.darragh@mcall.com

Twitter: @timdarragh

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