HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Lawyers for the people who won a court ruling about the use of Pennsylvania's tobacco settlement money say the state government should now restart adultBasic, its shuttered health insurance program for adults.
The lawyers for dozens of former adultBasic enrollees said the decision Tuesday by a Commonwealth Court judge is a win for low-income Pennsylvanians.
The judge said state law requires a portion of the tobacco settlement proceeds to go to both Medicaid for disabled workers and to adultBasic or a similar plan.
Republican Gov. Tom Corbett shut down adultBasic shortly after taking office in 2011, saying it wasn't affordable.
Corbett hasn't commented on the new ruling, which invalidated laws passed in 2010 and 2011 that diverted the money to other uses.