In April Gov. Tom Wolf took a much-needed step and replaced Pennsylvania’s ill-conceived and unnecessarily convoluted “Healthy PA” program with a traditional Medicaid expansion.

The move, which simplified enrollment procedures, is the better course of action. Last week we saw the first reports of positive effects from those changes.

The wait for many patients, whose access to care through Healthy PA was bogged down with health screenings to determine eligibility, is over.

About 2 percent of applicants to HealthChoices — the name of Wolf’s expansion program — wait longer than 30 days for a determination on eligibility. That’s down from about 13 percent waiting that long under former Gov. Tom Corbett’s Healthy PA program. Most applicants receive an answer in 22 days.

That’s a dramatic and necessary improvement to an expansion system Pennsylvanians clearly want and need. State officials projected that as many as 600,000 residents could be eligible under the rules of the expansion, which are laid out in the federal government’s Affordable Care Act. More than 430,000 have signed up since December.

But expanded Medicaid access won’t come free, and the fiscal impact of Wolf’s decision over the long term isn’t yet clear. Skeptics of the change have rightly pointed to budget concerns tied to the cost of the program. Wolf’s administration has yet to come up with comprehensive cost estimates that can contribute to the discussion.

These estimates need to be a top priority given the state’s dubious fiscal state of affairs and the narrow window of time officials have to work out how to pay for the expansion.

Federal funds initially will pay in full for the expansion, but starting in 2017 Pennsylvania will start kicking in a portion of the expense. By 2020 the state will be footing 10 percent of the bill.

It’s not likely to be a small bill, either.

In the 2014-15 fiscal year, Medicaid spending exceeded $23 billion in Pennsylvania and covered 2.2 million people.

There’s every indication that the demand for services will continue to grow — as will the state government’s fiscal issues.

By 2020, one in four Pennsylvanians will be age 60 or older — 60 is a significant age milestone for those paying insurance premiums, which can cost more than $500 per month for adults who fall short of Medicare eligibility, which kicks in at age 65.

Perhaps it’s no coincidence that Pennsylvania’s non-partisan Independent Fiscal Office projects the state to post a $2.55 billion General Fund deficit by 2020. That’s nearly $1 billion more than the projected deficit for the current fiscal year.

Getting affordable health coverage to people who are in need is a worthy cause. But we need to figure out how much it’s going to cost and how we’re going to pay for it when it comes time to cut the first state check to the federal government.