Auditor General, Eugene DePasquale, and his office announced their intent Monday to investigate the appropriation of $48 million spent on undisclosed activities relating to the Corbett Administration’s HealthyPA plan.

DePasquale will ask for copies of all itemized billing statements for all contracts associated with HealthyPA to discover how the Corbett Administration appropriated $48 million in federal and state funds for the HealthyPA roll out.

HealthyPA is Governor Corbett’s option to low-income Pennsylvanians to purchase health insurance from private carriers rather than the state government.

According to the Healthy PA website, Governor Corbett will not accept “Washington’s ‘one size fits all approach’ for the Commonwealth” and thus created HealthyPA as an alternative to the Medicaid expansion introduced under the Affordable Care Act.

Among the opponents of Corbett’s private Medicaid expansion plan are the SEIU.

“We applaud the efforts of Auditor General DePasquale to demand transparency and accountability from the Corbett Administration in its expenditure of taxpayer dollars,” said Neal Bisno, President of SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania. “Despite facing a $1.5 billion budget shortfall, Governor Corbett doled out $48 million on undisclosed activities related to its Healthy PA program while refusing to simply expand Medicaid for hundreds of thousands of uninsured Pennsylvanians. Imagine what $48 million could have offered this past year for the hundreds of thousands of uninsured Pennsylvanians in the way of doctor visits, medications and life-saving care.”

Citing an article from Forbes, they assert that HealthyPA will cost more and require steep budgets cuts.

Meanwhile, Democratic nominee Tom Wolf has pledged to accept the original Medicaid expansion if elected Governor.