News

March 9, 2010

Eachus attends Obama’s health-care session

State rep.: Pa. on track to be one of the first states to provide affordable coverage.

By Steve Mocarsky smocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
Steve Mocarsky on Facebook   |   @TLSteveMocarsky on Twitter

HARRISBURG – A local legislator was among a handful of elected officials invited to attend President Barack Obama’s speech pushing health care reform Monday at Arcadia University in Glenside, near Philadelphia.

State Rep. Todd Eachus, D-Butler Township, said he was with a small cadre of 10 to 15 people whom the president and his staff recognized before making his speech.

“He thanked us for what we were doing,” Eachus said.

“Our PACE program was clearly an early model for providing health care for senior citizens. We have the ability to cover all children in the state (through the Children’s Healthcare Insurance Program), but the budget crisis threatens that,” Eachus said.

The lawmaker said Pennsylvania is on track to be one of if not the first states in the nation to provide affordable health care coverage to more middle class Americans if federal legislation is passed within the next 10 days, as the president is pushing for, given that Pennsylvania House Bill 1 is pending before the state Senate.

House Bill 1, which Eachus sponsored, would allow another 85,000 low-income adults to buy subsidized health insurance at a monthly premium of $40-$50.Currently, only about 40,000 people are enrolled in Adult Basic and nearly another 400,000 eligible individuals are on a waiting list, Eachus said.

And unless the Blue Cross companies renegotiate a community health agreement with the commonwealth this year, those 40,000 people will lose their health insurance in December, he said.

Eachus said he explained “very clearly that the time” for health care reform “has to be now. Our community is facing 10 percent unemployment, and with every job lost, health care is lost.”

“The crowd was very enthusiastic. I think we reached a very heavy moment where the president was asking Congress to act within 10 days,” Eachus said.

He said he believes he was invited to attend the speech because “for a decade, I’ve been the one who stood in the well of the House fighting for access to health care. And being House Majority Leader probably didn’t hurt either,” he said.

Eachus said he told President Obama he understood “how hard leadership is” and that “I have him in my prayers.”

Gov. Ed Rendell and U.S. Sens. Bob Casey and Arlen Specter were among those the president recognized at the beginning of his speech.

“Everybody notice how good Ed is looking, by the way? He’s been on that training program, eating egg whites and keeping his cholesterol down,” Obama said to audience laughter.

Tweet	Follow @TLnews