State Senate GOP Unveils Healthcare Plan

Republican state senators are promoting a healthcare plan they say will help more people at a lower cost than a proposed expansion of government-subsidized insurance championed by Gov. Ed Rendell. Sen. Ted Erickson says the Senate plan would give more than half a million uninsured and low-income Pennsylvanians access to health care. It calls for expanding the availability of community health centers that serve the poor and providing insurance to people who cannot get coverage because of pre-existing health problems, among other things. Erickson says the plan would cost $100 million. The Senate GOP has opposed a bill endorsed by Rendell to provide health coverage to about 270,000 uninsured Pennsylvanians. The program's cost is expected to exceed $1 billion by 2012-13.