You can’t please everyone when it comes to sweeping health care reform. It’s apparent Gov. Tom Corbett hasn’t even pleased himself with the proposal he introduced Monday to expand health care in Pennsylvania.

Corbett reluctantly becomes the 10th Republican governor to accept more federal Medicaid dollars to expand health care under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, better known as ObamaCare.

While Corbett says he’ll take the money, he clearly wants to minimize the regulatory strings attached to it.

Corbett insists his proposal, which he titled “Healthy Pennsylvania,” doesn’t expand Medicaid at all; instead, it proposes using the federal money to pay for private health insurance coverage for working-poor Pennsylvanians.

Corbett’s proposal is conditional: Applicants for Healthy Pennsylvania coverage, along with existing Medicaid recipients who are able-bodied, will be required to seek employment and job training through a new statewide registry. The elderly and disabled will be exempt from this requirement.

The private insurance and job-search requirements insert a political element for Corbett, who is seeking re-election in November 2014. With the first federal Medicaid expansion money available Jan. 1, Health and Human Services under Democratic President Obama will be under pressure to accept Corbett’s demands, or risk negotiating past the November election, leaving basic health care questions unresolved for hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvania voters. Corbett can take credit if the deal is settled before then; if it isn’t settled, he can blame the Democrats.

For now, factions in both parties are lining up behind the governor. Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware, released a statement of support, while a statement by Senate Democrats didn’t criticize Corbett but reiterated their preference for an expansion of the existing Medicaid program.

The Pennsylvania Health Care Association, representing more than 425 long-term care and senior service providers, called Corbett’s proposal “both very thoughtful and the right step for Pennsylvania.”

Support for Healthy Pennsylvania isn’t headlong or wholeheartedly enthusiastic, but Corbett has put forth a plan he believes Pennsylvanians can live with — and one he believes federal officials can live with, too.

By broadening eligibility requirements, Corbett’s plan would extend health care coverage to an estimated 520,000 state residents who can’t afford it on their own. By tightening Medicaid eligility and adding a jobs element, it emphasizes the notion that those who are able should help pay for their medical care.

“If the goal is to give everybody quality and affordable health care, this is Pennsylvania’s way of doing that,” Corbett said.

Well said.