Butler County Residents, Health Care Advocates Meet Today on Demise of AdultBasic Insurance

Butler County residents will meet today with health care providers and advocates to mark the six-month anniversary of AdultBasic’s demise and to renew calls for a better solution for working families, according to a press release from the Pennsylvania Health Access Network.

The network will be releasing a report with the latest numbers on what happened to adultBasic recipients. Health care advocates also will discuss the impact of Highmark’s plan to raise rates by 9.9 percent on Special Care, the statement said. Special Care was the plan offered to individuals who were losing their adultBasic coverage.

Cece Foster, director of the Community Health Clinic of Butler County, said she has seen first-hand the impact the demise of adultBasic had on her clinic, which provides free primary care to uninsured, working residents in Butler County, the press release said.

“Since the discontinuation of adultBasic coverage in February 2011, the clinic has absorbed close to 80 patients and has fielded over 200 additional calls related to the loss of these services," Foster said in a statement.

The event is part of a statewide day of action in which advocates will deliver more than 2,500 petitions to Insurance Commissioner Michael Consedine in Harrisburg, urging him to hold a public hearing and to investigate Highmark’s plan to raise rates on Special Care.

The meeting takes place at 1 p.m. in the boardroom of the Community Health Clinic of Butler County, 103 Bonnie Drive, Butler. Speakers include Foster, PHAN organizer Erin Gill-Ninehouser, and Butler County residents who lost adultBasic and are now utilizing the clinic’s services to maintain their health.