AT A GLANCE: The biggest health-related proposals in Gov. Josh Shapiro’s 2024-25 budget include $100 million toward increased mental health resources in schools and an additional $20 million for counties to fund local mental health services. The budget calls for nearly $250 million in new state spending toward services for people with disabilities. This includes $34.2 million toward more waivers to allow people with disabilities, including autism, to receive home and community-based services and $214 million to provide a 12% reimbursement increase for providers of those services. Moreover, the administration says the $214 million investment will qualify the state for an additional $266 million in federal funds.
The budget would spend $50 million to further subsidize health insurance premiums for low-income customers of Pennie, the Pennsylvania-run marketplace for Affordable Care Act coverage. It would give $10 million to the health department’s Long-Term Care Transformation Office, which helps nursing homes and long-term care facilities address problems including staffing shortages and issues that can undermine care or force facilities to close. The budget would provide $10 million for the state’s 988 mental health crisis and suicide prevention hotline effort, with the money used to bolster staffing at the 14 regional call centers. It would spend $5 million to create walk-in mental health crisis centers in areas that presently lack one, and would spend $5 million to relieve medical debt for people with low incomes.