Pa.'s adultBasic insurance projected to run out of money weeks after Corbett inauguration

An affordable health-insurance program for low-income working people that was started by Gov. Tom Ridge and expanded under Gov. Rendell is projected to run out of money within weeks after Gov.-elect Corbett takes office, administration officials said.

Contractual obligations mean that insurance-termination notices may need to go to tens of thousands of subscribers in the program, known as adultBasic, even before the new governor is sworn in, if more than $50 million is not found before then, they said.

As attorney general, Corbett joined a lawsuit seeking to overturn President Obama's health-care overhaul. The opposition was based on the mandate that individuals and many businesses sign up or pay a fine, said Kevin Harley, a spokesman for the transition. The governor-elect said during the campaign that he supported plans to continue funding the state program at least through the fiscal year that ends June 30.

The transition team will examine any earlier shortfall "in great detail," Harley said.

"I don't think the new governor wants to come into office and the first thing to happen is to have 43,000 people lose their health insurance," said Sharon Ward, director of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, a nonpartisan but liberal-leaning group in Harrisburg.

Nearly 464,000 people are on the adultBasic waiting list.

"I believe there will be a good-faith effort to find a new solution to this," Ward said.

Both Ward and departing administration officials said the options may be limited, particularly given the time frame.

The legislature and governor could allocate money from the general treasury or divert more from the tobacco settlement, which already pays for part of the program. But the state already faces a projected $4 billion deficit next fiscal year. The Senate's last scheduled day is Wednesday, while the House has already gone home.

The other likely possibility would be additional contributions from the state's four Blue Cross/Blue Shield plans, which currently pay for most of the program. But lower-than-projected contributions this year from two of them - Highmark and Independence Blue Cross - are partly responsible for the shortfall, administration officials said, and spokesmen for both said they considered their obligations fulfilled.

The possibility of adultBasic's demise "terrifies" Denise Lohr, 56, owner of a pet-sitting business in Pittsburgh who spent two uninsured years on the waiting list before being accepted in 2006.