Pennsylvania State Capitol. Photo credit: Zack Frank/Shutterstock.com

Rural Hospitals

Two state lawmakers on Aug. 20 touted their legislative effort to establish a mechanism to help rural hospitals keep their doors open.

Pennsylvania Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Luzerne, and state Rep. Tina Pickett, R-Bradford, unveiled Senate Bill 1237, which would establish the Rural Health Redesign Center, aimed at helping rural hospitals by developing more predictable payment plans.

Baker, who is chairwoman of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, and Pickett, who is chairwoman of the House Insurance Committee, offered the bill at a time when more than 30 rural hospitals in Pennsylvania are at risk of closure.

The measure would help create a fixed budget to standardize reimbursements while also improving their ability to develop and carry out expanded, state-of-the-art community health services, and providing the capacity for them to pursue programs addressing key needs, such as behavioral health and substance abuse, and cooperative EMS.

It would initially be funded by a $25 million grant from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. As a public-private partnership operating independently from the state government, the RHRC would also have the capacity to raise funds from other sources, such as foundations. “By putting a tourniquet on the financial bleeding, we can enable our rural hospitals to invest more in community health,” Baker added. “With not a lot of time left in this legislative session, I will move the bill quickly so there is a chance it can be sent to the governor and become law this year.”

School Funding

Two House Republicans issued a statement on Aug. 21 pushing what they framed as a compromise on an education funding formula that would be fair to all Pennsylvania school districts.

Reps. Tim Hennessey, R-Chester, and Tom Quigley, R-Montgomery, jointly introduced House Bill 2595, called the Basic Education Funding Fairness bill, aimed at helping better address disparities in basic education funding. The bill would ensure fairness to all school districts and bring increased funding to local schools more quickly than currently planned.

“The adoption of the Fair Funding Formula was a great first step, but more needs to be done to deliver real help to districts that need it while still protecting the quality of all of Pennsylvania's schools. Our legislation does just that,” Quigley said. “This is a true compromise that is fair to everyone.”

The 2014-15 bipartisan Basic Education Funding Commission (BEFC) reviewed the distribution of the more than $5.5 billion in state Basic Education Funding and recommended a new distribution formula for all subsequent years.

“We know that more than one third of our school districts statewide lose money under the current formula,” Hennessey said. “This bill would accelerate the correction of that problem while still protecting all 500 school districts.”

This legislation incorporates the BEFC recommendations and, beginning in the 2019-20 fiscal year, would allocate 75 percent of all new Basic Education Funding proportionately to the underfunded school districts; and the remaining 25 percent of all new Basic Education Funding to all 500 school districts through the student-weighted Basic Education Formula.

Under this legislation, no school district's Basic Education Funding will be reduced below the 2014-15 base year level. Instead, to fix years of serious underfunding, this legislation provides for a higher proportion of the “new” money to be allocated to underfunded districts to bring them to parity.

Marijuana Legalization

State Rep. Jake Wheatley, D-Allegheny, announced on Aug. 21 that he is launching an online petition in support of his House Bill 2600 that would legalize marijuana for adult recreational use.

The petition outlines Wheatley's arguments for the benefits of legalization, and points to the success and popularity of the state's medical marijuana program.

“There are tremendous benefits to legalizing marijuana and few downsides,” Wheatley said. “It's estimated that legalization would generate more than $580 million in annual tax revenue for Pennsylvania. That's money to balance our budget, strengthen our economy, bolster our workforce and improve our schools.”

Wheatley added that nine other states plus the District of Columbia have already legalized marijuana and are seeing huge benefits. He said he plans to encourage all of his colleagues to support the legislation.

According to a statement from the Pittsburgh Democrat, Pennsylvania's medical marijuana program was signed into law in April 2016, and the drug became available to patients at statewide dispensaries beginning in February 2018. To date, more than 52,000 patients have registered to participate in the program, and more than 30,000 of those patients have received their identification cards and are able to purchase the drug at dispensaries. Of the more than 1,000 physicians who have registered for the program, more than 700 have been approved as practitioners.

Climate Change

Environmental advocates have scheduled two rallies to highlight the role of climate change in causing extreme weather conditions and other related events occurring this summer in Pennsylvania and elsewhere.

The Trump administration's proposal made earlier this week to remove the government cap on power plant emissions is just the latest in its attacks on environmental protection, according to a statement from PennFuture.

Among the organizations sponsoring the “Beat the Heat” rallies—set for Aug. 25 in Norristown and Aug. 28 in Philadelphia—are PennFuture and PennEnvironment, along with the Clean Air Council, the Philadelphia Office of Sustainability, and AFGE Local 3631. •