Fewer than half former adultBasic enrollees have signed up for alternative insurance

By Mary Wilson

(Harrisburg) -- Six months have passed since the state ended its adultBasic health insurance program for low-income Pennsylvanians. Fewer than half of the enrollees have signed up for alternative insurance options. In the final hours of adultBasic’s funding, enrollees were encouraged to apply for Medicaid, or change their coverage to a product subsidized by Pennsylvania’s Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans. So far, just 38 percent of the enrollees who were with adultBasic to the end landed with either of those products. And one of them, Jerry Kaufman, a self-employed trash collector, says he hasn’t been happy with his Special Care insurance, which limits him to four doctors’ visits a year. "So, I’m limited to, even if I’m not feeling good, to try and not to go to the doctor, because I have prostate cancer, and I’m trying to use just those four office visits a year to my urologist, which I have to go every three months to be monitored," he says. Kaufman says he’s also upset about the higher premium under adultBasic, he paid $36 a month. He now pays $162 a month for his Special Care coverage. The Blues are involved in negotiations with the state Insurance Department to raise that rate by about five percent. A Highmark/Blue Shield spokesman says the real driver of rate increases is rising health care costs across the board.