In Case You Missed It Pa. Health Care Experts Propose the Personal Option as a Solution to the State’s Health Care Woes

Harrisburg, Pa., July 15, 2024 — The Commonwealth Foundation held a webinar last week to discuss a transformative health care proposal, the Personal Option, which would give Pennsylvanians more control over their health coverage, including choosing their doctors, having a higher quality of service, and paying lower prices for care.

Featured speakers included Dr. Kimberly Legg-Corba, physician and family medicine specialist; Dallas Riley, certified registered nurse practitioner and partner of Hall & Riley Comprehensive Health Care; and Elizabeth Stelle, director of Policy Analysis at the Commonwealth Foundation.

“Choice and control are two buzzwords I hear from my patients,” said Dr. Corba, “and they feel like they don’t have much of either one.”

One reason, according to Stelle, is that policymakers put too much emphasis on payment methods and not enough on the patients. “Just because you have an insurance card doesn’t necessarily mean the patient is going to be able to get the care they need when they need it, how they want it,” she said. “That’s why we’ve talked about our slate of reforms, as the Personal Option, because it’s really about personalizing health care.”

The Personal Option would “make sure that the patient becomes the center of care again, and not the payment model, or some of the other competing priorities,” she said.

A full recording of the webinar can be found here.

Learn more about the Personal Option here or view our backgrounder here.

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The Commonwealth Foundation turns free-market ideas into public policies, fostering prosperity for all Pennsylvanians.