Harrisburg-based Capital BlueCross announced it will quicken the pace that it issues Affordable Care Act-mandated rebate checks to help its member’s financial wellness during the pandemic.

Pennsylvanians who lose their jobs as non-essential businesses close in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic have a number of federal options to help them continue to receive health insurance.

A federal appeals court ruled that an Affordable Care Act requirement that mandated Americans to purchase health insurance was unconstitutional, but did not rule on whether to overturn the act, known as Obamacare.

State and federal officials criticized the most recent legal challenge against the Affordable Care Act and the lawmakers endorsing the erasure of the Obama era legislation in the State Capitol’s main rotunda on Wednesday.

A lot has changed since 1998, the year that Pennsylvania and 45 states stood up to big tobacco and helped create the Tobacco Settlement Fund, or TSF. Since Pennsylvania hospitals first began receiving money from the fund, it has been used to bolster health care in that state in a variety of ways. Gov. Tom Wolf’s budget plan kept the TSF whole, but The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania is concerned that this year some lawmakers want to use TSF funds to instead pay state debt.