Governor Tom Corbett is committed to ensuring Pennsylvanians have increased access to quality, affordable health care.


IMPROVING ACCESS

Get All Kids Insured: No child in Pennsylvania should be without health care. Healthy Pennsylvania works to ensure that all Pennsylvania children have access to quality, affordable health care coverage that best meets their needs. Governor Corbett has increased funding to support enrollment and outreach efforts for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), with the goal of covering all children. The plan also eliminates CHIP’s six month waiting period, allowing all Pennsylvania children to have continued and timely access to CHIP coverage.

Increase Access to Primary Health Care: Healthy Pennsylvania works to increase access to preventive and primary care. To continue this effort to expanded community-based, primary care health clinics throughout our commonwealth, Pennsylvania will apply for federal funding to increase access and better meet the primary care needs of all Pennsylvanians.

Recruit and Retain Healthcare Professionals: The Governor will ensure that Pennsylvanians have better access to primary care services by increasing the amount of providers in underserved areas. The governor continues to support loan forgiveness programs to train primary healthcare practitioners who, in return, will provide care in underserved areas.

Harness Health Information Technology: Healthy Pennsylvania will continue to promote greater use of health IT, including telemedicine and electronic health records, to bring high quality healthcare services to all Pennsylvanians.


ENSURING QUALITY

Combat Prescription Drug Abuse: With prescription drug abuse on an alarming rise in Pennsylvania, Healthy Pennsylvania will work with the General Assembly to monitor and address the problem of prescription drug abuse.

Supporting Older & Disabled Pennsylvanians: A core component of Healthy Pennsylvania is developing a more effective and coordinated long-term care and support system for older and disabled Pennsylvanians. Healthy Pennsylvania will build on this year’s $50 million increase for older and disabled Pennsylvania and continue efforts to streamline services so that additional individuals may have access to home-and-community-based care.

Promote Good Public Health: From managing illness to promoting programs to keep kids and adults healthy in schools and communities, Healthy Pennsylvania supports public health efforts that improve the health of Pennsylvanians.


PROVIDING AFFORDABILITY

Rebuild and Reform Pennsylvania’s Medicaid Program: Governor Corbett’s Healthy Pennsylvania plan includes a common-sense approach to reforming Pennsylvania’s Medicaid program in order to provide affordable, quality health care in a responsible manner. The reforms include instituting a modest monthly premium designed to reduce unnecessary and inappropriate emergency room usage and asking the federal government to allow for job training and job search requirements for all working-age Medicaid beneficiaries.

Governor Corbett will not accept a Washington “one size fits all” approach for the Commonwealth and believes that reform is critical in order to protect and stabilizes Pennsylvania’s Medicaid program for our neediest citizens.

Continue to Reform PA’s Medical Liability System: Pennsylvania’s medical liability environment continues to be a financial burden on the state’s overall health care system. Healthy Pennsylvania builds upon recent improvements in our legal system by encouraging the adoption of the “Apology Rule” for health care providers to allow them to express empathy for unforeseen outcomes without fear that their statements will be seen as an admission of error.

Click here to see Governor Corbett's entire Healthy PA plan


Click here to see the full Medicaid Reform Proposal

A United Nations report released on Monday confirmed that a deadly chemical arms attack caused a mass killing in Syria last month and for the first time provided extensive forensic details of the weapons used, which strongly implicated the Syrian government.

Cynthia McKinney ‏@cynthiamckinney
I am in Syria now with former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, where residents enjoy free education and free... http://fb.me/2eJd3XPCl

jerseyhoya wrote:

Cynthia McKinney ‏@cynthiamckinney
I am in Syria now with former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, where residents enjoy free education and free... http://fb.me/2eJd3XPCl

Cynthia! What a fucking legendary lunatic.

jerseyhoya wrote:Tom DeLay's conviction got overturned

pacino wrote:get um

Kessler continued his twice-weekly radio program, "The Chief Kessler Show," and updated his website, http://www.chiefkessler.com, with gun rights information. He also called his pending termination vote a "kangaroo court" and last week announced his write-in campaign for Schuylkill County sheriff on his website.
As the end of the 30-day suspension drew near, Borough Council made the suspension indefinite until it could meet with Kessler and Nahas, of Frackville.
Kessler has said he has been getting death threats since the media began reporting on the videos and maintains he did nothing wrong. He says the videos are protected by his constitutional rights of free speech and to possess guns.
Kessler was hired 14 years ago and became an influential voice in the borough, crafting a resolution this year in which Gilberton says the borough would not recognize federal and state laws that erode the Second Amendment.
The resolution was a culmination of Kessler's activism with gun rights. He has since moved on to form the Constitutional Security Force to unite with other gun rights advocates and organize rallies.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-g ... z2fQq6Zc4o

Two Canadian activists are among a group of 25 people who were being held at gunpoint aboard a Greenpeace ship, the environmental group said Thursday.

Arctic Campaign Co-ordinator Christy Ferguson said Paul Ruzycki of Port Colborne, Ont., and a man from Montreal whose name was not released were arrested when Russian coast guard officers boarded their vessel, which Greenpeace says was in international waters.

Ferguson said at least 15 members of the coast guard used helicopters and ropes to rappel on board the Arctic Sunrise, a Greenpeace ship carrying a crew bent on protesting offshore oil drilling in the Arctic.

The crew were being held in the ship's mess, she said, adding no injuries have been reported.

The incident took place Thursday as the ship was circling an oil platform in the Pechora Sea, an arm of the Barents Sea. The platform was owned by Gazprom, a Russian oil company.

Russia's Interfax news agency reported that the vessel was to be brought to the northern port of Murmansk following the search.

Interfax also quoted the Russian foreign ministry as saying the crew of the vessel took "provocative" actions and posed a threat to human life and the environment in the Arctic region.

"The note of protest that was given to the Dutch ambassador describes the actions of the crew of the Dutch-flagged vessel as provocative and says that they posed a threat to human life and the risk of an environmental catastrophe in the Arctic with unpredictable consequences," it said.

Ferguson decried the incident, saying Russian authorities had no jurisdiction over a ship that was sailing in international waters and no need to resort to threatening tactics.

"This was a peaceful protest against reckless industrial activity in the Arctic," Ferguson said in a telephone interview from Toronto.

"Russian authorities have responded with extreme aggression and force. They've pointed guns at people, they've pointed knives at people. They're arresting people and holding them without information in international waters."

Last month Greenpeace claimed the Russian coast guard had threatened to open fire on the Arctic Sunrise if, as planned, it entered the North Sea Route to protest Arctic oil exploration.

The Obama administration on Thursday expanded its effort to curtail severe penalties for low-level federal drug offenses, ordering prosecutors to refile charges against defendants in pending cases and strip out any references to specific quantities of illicit substances that would trigger mandatory minimum sentencing laws.

The move, announced by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. at a speech before the annual conference of the Congressional Black Caucus, builds on a major policy change he unveiled last month to avoid mandatory minimum sentencing laws in future low-level cases.

“By reserving the most severe prison terms for serious, high-level, or violent drug traffickers or kingpins, we can better enhance public safety,” Mr. Holder said. “We can increase our focus on proven strategies for deterrence and rehabilitation. And we can do so while making our expenditures smarter and more productive.”

The policy applies to defendants who meet four criteria: their offense did not involve violence, the use of a weapon, or selling drugs to minors; they are not leaders of a criminal organization; they have no significant ties to large-scale gangs or drug trafficking organizations; and they have no significant criminal histories.