Philadelphia Unemployment Project

From “Homeowners offered relief in Philadelphia program” in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer:

In theory, the Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Diversion Pilot is
supposed to work like this: Under court order, no house can be sent to
a sheriff’s sale without the owner-occupant’s having an opportunity to
have a court-sponsored conciliation session.

Before that session, the homeowner must take part in a free
housing-counseling session to draw up a reasonable proposal to present
to the mortgage company. If the counselor cannot work out a deal, then
the borrower and advocates for the borrower and lender appear at a
conciliation session before a temporary judge.

If it doesn’t work, a full-time judge like Rizzo may get involved. Or, ultimately, the homes can move to sheriff’s sale.

Also:

Michael T. McKeever, of Goldbeck, McCafferty & McKeever, a Philadelphia law firm that represents lenders … applauds the forced conciliation sessions because they require
both sides to work out a deal more quickly. “The longer they are in
default, the harder it is for them to pay,” he said, and the more money
the lenders lose.

Technorati Tags: foreclosure, Philadelphia, PUP, workouts, pilot program, saving homes, owner-occupants

The Senate Republicans came out with an alternative health insurance plan yesterday. The intent of their plan is to a) not be left totally behind and b) stir up needless debate for the precise purpose of making sure nothing happens.

I’m going to publish the Pennsylvania Health Access Network Response in its entirety here, but you should also click “read more” to see an excerpt from what the Pennsylvania Medical Society released today as well (that’s the biggest group of physicians).

Senate Republicans Unveil a Band-Aid
“We must care for people until we can figure out a solution.”

(Harrisburg, June 10, 2008) Plainly uncomfortable with their emerging role as the caucus that blocked affordable health insurance for 250,000 uninsured Pennsylvanians, Senate Republicans have at long last unveiled their non-solution to the problem of the uninsured.

The plan, as presented by senators Erickson, Corman, Donald White, and Wonderling at this morning’s press conference, is infused with humanitarian zeal. But its presentation also includes a note of pessimism.Dr. Zane Gates, a physician who serves as medical director of a free medical clinic in Altoona, articulated both sentiments: “We need 150 free clinics across Pennsylvania, which would serve 600,000 patients. We must find a way to care for people until we can figure out a solution to the health insurance problem” (emphasis added).

“Being uninsured is the 5th leading cause of death in America,” said Gates. “The incarcerated receive medical care, as I think they should. Why not also the working poor?”

The Senate plan would cobble together a patchwork of community health centers and free clinics to offer primary care to more uninsured Pennsylvanians. “Rather than open a pathway to the health system we have, their plan is to stitch together another one. But it would be filled with gaps and none of it would be available tomorrow. It would take time to put their new infrastructure in place,” said Tracy Lawless, Campaign Director for the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute of Pennsylvania.

“Consider for a moment what the House-passed plan has that this plan doesn’t have,” said Marc Stier, Health Campaign Manager for the Service Employees International Union. “Hospital coverage, prescription coverage, access to specialists, access to sophisticated diagnostic care. They propose spending nearly as much as the House plan but would have little to show for it.”<!–break–>

The humanitarian part of the Senate Republican plan is $50 million to expand services of community-based health clinics, a plan that Senator Erickson said would serve 175,000 new patients. Erickson was plainly uncomfortable that his proposal did not provide access to specialists or sophisticated diagnostic tools and asked his guests to speak to the problem. The answers, which were hardly reassuring, focused on recruiting volunteers.

“If you are an uninsured Pennsylvanian, toward the end of your working years and needing access to medical care, this plan will be a big disappointment,” said John Dodds, executive director of the Philadelphia Unemployment Project. “Relatively few additional individuals will be insured as a result of the $100 million they want to spend.”

Sharon Ward, director of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center in Harrisburg, noted the absence of any discussion by Senate Republicans of the availability of federal resources to expand health coverage. “Access to Basic Care, the House-passed plan, would draw down $400 million in federal funds annually. Uninsured Pennsylvanians need that help. But the plan announced today leaves that money on the table.”

Ward was complimentary about one aspect of the plan – the proposal to use $100 million annually from the surplus in the Health Care Provider Retention Account. “I welcome that commitment from the senators because it signifies agreement with the House and the Governor that a portion of the HCPRA surplus should be used to improve health access for the uninsured. That will be a huge help in the budget discussions that are going on behind the scenes. Now the only question is how to use that money in the most effective way possible.”

“The health insurance problem” Dr. Gates acknowledged was not being solved was nevertheless addressed by Senator White, who promised health insurance coverage for 20-year-olds whose parents have coverage and can afford to add them to their policies. He also promised support for the extension of COBRA requirements to small employers, thus offering former employees the option of purchasing their former coverage.

At one point in the press conference, senators Wonderling and Corman used the terms “archaic” and “retro-New Deal thinking” to describe government funding to help the uninsured buy private insurance.

“That’s where the press briefing took on the tone of a campaign event,” said Berry Friesen, public affairs manager for the Pennsylvania Health Access Network. “Just two years ago the Pennsylvania Senate unanimously approved a plan to use public resources to stimulate broader private coverage of children. Yet here they are, slamming virtually that same plan for uninsured adults as ‘archaic and lethargic’.

“We like free medical clinics, just as we like free food pantries,” said Friesen. “We’re just surprised the Senate Republicans put free clinics at the center of their plan. People want health insurance.”

*******

Excerpts from the Medical Society’s own response to the GOP Plan:

The Pennsylvania Medical Society has received information on the plan, and is currently reviewing its details.

With that said, the Pennsylvania Medical Society thanks the Senate Republicans for opening new portals for a full discussion on the future of health care delivery in our state … all cards are now on the table for everyone to review, discuss, and debate.

A quick review of the Senate Republican plan indicates that their model would involve the private sector, and the financial mechanisms appear positive in running the program. HealthNET PA also delinks Mcare and health insurance, allowing each to stand on its own merit and doesn’t hold one hostage to the other from year to year.

Hold one hostage? They both draw from the same funding stream. It just seems like the Medical Society would like to give doctors a chance to draw even more from the cigarette tax’s funding stream than they could if they had to share the money with the Uninsured.

The nice thing about the GOP plan is that they realized they couldn’t get anything done on healthcare without dipping into cigarette tax money. Now that they have admitted that, the only question is how much of it we spend and on whom.
_______________________
Philadelphia Unemployment Project

Dr. Valerie Arkoosh, a local physician, issued a statement yesterday alongside many other Doctors, Nan Feyler of the Nutter Administration and uninsured leaders, showing the support of progressive doctors in the National Physician’s Alliance for major healthcare reform. “It’s not everyday that you see solidarity and hear a unified voice from doctors, patients, politicians and advocacy organizations, but SB 1137—a Bill poised to enact a new program of insurance for Pennsylvania’s uninsured—easily brings us together.”

Dr. Arkoosh explained that SB 1137 creates PA ABC “a solid insurance program including prescription drugs, preventive and wellness care, and chronic disease management” that will be “subsidized for adults with a family income of 200% of the federal poverty line, which today translates to $42,000 for a family of four.”

Dr. Arkoosh also explained how SB 1137 benefits doctors:

• It will extend the MCare abatement program-which subsidizes state provided malpractice insurance- for ten years.
• It will gradually give a full abatement of MCare premiums to physicians who have only received partial abatements previously.
• It phases out the MCare program after the ten-year period. And it provides a solution for the unfunded liability of the program that does not place the burden on doctors nor hospitals.
• It will reduce the amount of uncompensated care provided by physicians and hospitals today.

As of yesterday, about 50 doctors in the state had indicated their support by signing a letter supporting the version of SB 1137 passed by the house in March.

Meanwhile, Peter Lund, MD, President of the Pennsylvania Medical Society, issued a negative statement on Pennsylvania’s proposed Access to Basic Care program.

What he said is after the jump…

In recent months, regrettably, both doctors and patients have been put in the middle of a political debate. And, because of political maneuvering, health insurance and medical liability insurance are linked together through a proposal to help doctors defray liability insurance costs and also extend affordable health care coverage to the state’s uninsured adults.

So, as we lose doctors engaged in patient care, and since Pennsylvania has too many uninsured, now is an ideal time for legislative leaders on both sides of the aisle and the Administration to continue to work together to craft legislation in which our state can reduce both the number of uninsured and the cost of medical liability insurance.

The “regrettably” in this passage isn’t hard to read. The Medical Society is not supporting SB 1137 with Access to Basic Care included. They want to hold onto the money we’ve gathered off taxing tobacco products to find new ways to subsidize doctors and hospitals. The truth is, the money was gathered to maintain access, not just to maintain doctors. We seem to be holding onto doctors.

At a hearing of the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee on Tuesday, the Hospital Association spoke to the importance of funding MCARE’s subsidy for doctors through the Healthcare Provider Retention Account. In their testimony, they both oppose including an expansion in health insurance in the same bill as that which extends the subsidy of some doctors’ malpractice insurance and they oppose requiring doctors who sign up for MCARE to accept ABC coverage.

I wonder if the folks who oppose expanding health insurance access are the same ones signing patients up for medical credit cards in their waiting rooms.

Even though some of the larger organized medical community opposes linking these two issues, as Budget Secretary Masch says, they are really the same issue. They both came up to insure access and their funding streams are so inextricably linked that you really have to deal with both programs at once. Moreover, as you can see from the photo above, other doctors get it. We had everyone from an emergency room supervisor, a pediatrician, general practitioners and others out there to show their support for insurance extensions.

We didn’t get to speak up at the Insurance Committee hearing; consumers were shut out. As some of the Senators and Capitolwire noted, though, people who cared about healthcare access showed up and made their positions clear with rally signs while politely standing in the back of the room.
——————————————————
Pennsylvania Health Access Network

Chicago Public Radio’s show This American Life has done a great story on the credit crunch. They trace the demand for mortgage backed security’s back to this gigantic pool of money that represents the total wealth of all the central banks in the world. It’s a lot of money.
If you’re interested in this sub-prime mortgage crisis, I highly recommend listening to his story. They turn the development of this crisis into a compelling story that takes you through the various layers of the mortgage backed security and mortgage making process. It’s funny, engaging and very informative.
It’s free to listen to here.

In the present economic downturn, many states have decreased their spending, particularly in the area of public health. That’s why it’s gratifying to see City Council, the Department of Public Welfare and the General Assembly working together to bring more dollars into the state so we can actually improve care for the Uninsured and Medicaid eligible population in Philadelphia.

Quick Fact! Just because a person has Medical Assistance Health Coverage, that doesn’t mean they can find a doctor! Most doctors around here refuse to accept Medical Assistance, that’s why the Federally Qualified Health Centers and the City’s Health Centers are so important.

Council took the first step yesterday to move a plan that will move millions more dollars into our hospitals and health centers. PUP is especially excited because the Department of Health believes that these new funds should enable them to bring wait times at City Health Centers down to less than 30 days and improve health care by implementing electronic records throughout all city facilities (including jails and youth centers).

Yesterday, City Council’s Committee of the Whole voted unanimously to move a piece of legislation (No. 080465) to the floor of Council with a positive recommendation. This legislation will levy an assessment on all Philadelphia Hospitals. Most of that assessment will be transferred to the State. The State has to pass authorizing legislation on this, too, and Rep. Evans has already submitted the required legislation. Several million dollars will stay in Philadelphia, though, to supplement funds for our Health Centers.

The State will use the money from the hospitals to pay hospitals back for emergency room care of people eligible for Medical Assistance. This payment will enable them to draw down Federal matching dollars for the same purpose.

What this should mean is that more money, overall, will be in our hospitals, not less. Though, some will definitely be assessed more than they get back. Others will be assessed less than what they get back, though, and we hope the formula will favor hospitals that try the hardest to really serve the community.

The City and State showed how important this effort is to both bodies by turning out Deputy Mayor Schwartz and Public Welfare Secretary Estelle Richman to testify before Council on behalf of the measure.

The Hospital Association (in the form of the Delaware Valley Healthcare Council) came out to say that they couldn’t endorse the plan at this point. They said they didn’t trust the state to get enough back to hospitals after the assessment that it wouldn’t, in the end, hurt some hospitals. I suppose their showing some form of solidarity, as there will be losers in the scheme, but hospitals will be more flush overall and no one is disputing that.
Technorati Tags: healthcare, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, health centers, FQHCs, emergency care, budgets, Rep. Evans, Sec. Richman, Deputy Mayor Schwartz

If you’re in trouble with your mortgage in Philadelphia, you need to call a housing counselor. In Philadelphia, you can call 215-334-HOME. A housing counselor can get you a better deal as you try to save your home. This is always true, but even moreso right now.

In Philadelphia, we have a Sheriff’s Sale moratorium going on backed up by a court that refuses to kick homeowners out if lenders don’t engage in a good faith effort to negotiate reasonable terms with the homeowner. Homeowners have to participate, though. They have to show up to court hearings and they have to engage in the process or they will still lose their home as quickly as they would have before.

The front page of The Daily News yesterday had a story about a successful effort by the Save our Homes Coalition (which included PUP) to win a better deal for Philadelphia homeowners facing foreclosure. Here’s an example of one of the personal stories of a successful loan modification described in the article by Dan Geringer:

Swollen by bankruptcy legal fees, her $3,500 bad debt ballooned to
$20,000. Her house was scheduled for sheriff’s sale last month. She
needed a miracle.

Freeman and hundreds of equally desperate Philadelphia homeowners

have found that miracle in the person of Common Pleas President Judge
C. Darnell Jones II, who recently issued a court order that may become
a national model for saving the homes of people drowning in debt.

Whether they succumbed to the teaser-rate adjustable mortgage loans
that suddenly readjusted skyward or predatory lenders or deceptively
expensive bankruptcies or fragile personal finances that collapsed due
to loss of income - all of them could lose their homes to foreclosure
if they don’t grab the lifeline that the judge is tossing them.

Judge Jones has give homeowners a chance to hold onto their houses and lenders a chance to stay in the black.

A crazy discussion got started around another article on the same issue, which you can view here.

Technorati Tags: foreclosure, Philadelphia, homeownership, sub-prime, predatory lending, John Dodds, PUP, neighborhoods

This statistic captures why the foreclosure issue transcends any sort of moral judgement about people “just not paying their mortgages.” Home vacancies are at an all time record high in the U.S. right now [18.6 million empty homes, 3% of the housing stock].
If you see all the folks on the street without a home, that’s enough to make empty homes a tragedy. It’s not just the homeless, though.
Does your rent or mortgage pinch you a little financially? How do you think people with less money feel? Yet, we’ve got almost 20 million homes sitting empty.
In Philadelphia, it’s even worse, because we have a lot of neighborhoods that are already about half condemned. Every time another house ends up standing vacant, that’s another house that’s likely to decay to the point of condemnation.
That’s why THE DAILY NEWS is saying it is so great that Philadelphia has innovated a better way to connect homeowners with lenders desperate to keep mortgages in the black.

Lenders aren’t helping people that have fallen behind on their mortgages quickly enough. That’s the conclusion of a new report by the State Foreclosure Prevention Working Group, a coalition of banking regulators atnd attorneys general from 11 different states.

From the Wall Street Journal:

The study, compiled by the State Foreclosure
Prevention Working Group, made up of banking regulators and attorneys
general in 11 states, found that seven out of 10 borrowers who are
seriously delinquent on their mortgages aren’t on track to receive any
kind of help with their payment problems.

…

“While there’s been a lot of effort put in by mortgage
servicers and government officials, there has been little change in
outcomes for homeowners,” said Mark Pearce, deputy banking commissioner
for North Carolina.

A reporter for Bloomberg News reported a New York official who suggested automatically giving loan modifications to whole swaths of borrowers that fell into certain groups:

New York State Banking Superintendent Richard Neiman
recommended widespread “automated” loan modifications that would group
delinquent borrowers together based on their payment histories, credit
scores or the amount they owe as a percentage of their home’s value.
Those criteria could then be used to offer uniform loan modification
terms to entire groups, he said.



“We’re still way behind,” Miller said. “It’s going to be pretty impossible to do these on a one-to-one basis.”