While adultBasic, the bare-bones health insurance program for the working poor in Pennsylvania, ended last week, the final word on the program has not been heard.

On Thursday, state Auditor General Jack Wagner released a report revealing that the General Assembly has, since 2000, diverted $1.34 billion in federal tobacco settlement money away from adultBasic and other health-related programs such as smoking cessation.

Wagner estimates that about 30 percent of tobacco settlement money has been quietly shifted away from adultBasic and other health-related programs in the state with no public discussion of how best to use the funds.

Funding health-related initiatives, particularly smoking cessation, made sense when the billions of dollars in tobacco settlement money began flowing to the states in 2000. The reason behind the massive lawsuit was financial burden placed on states for health care related to smoking.

When the General Assembly passed the Tobacco Settlement Act, Pennsylvania took a lead in applying tobacco settlement money to health issues. Other states quickly began using the money for programs having nothing to do with health. Beginning in fiscal year 2005-06 and every year since, Pennsylvania lawmakers have diverted tobacco settlement money away from adultBasic and other health-related programs.

Such diversion of tobacco settlement funds was wrong then and it’s wrong now.

Wagner is urging Gov. Tom Corbett and state lawmakers to redirect tobacco settlement money back to adultBasic. The headline of an editorial in the Philadelphia Inquirer commented on the diversion of money, saying plainly: “Give it back.”

Public pressure can, and should, force the General Assembly to restore the tobacco settlement money to the intended health-related programs it initially funded. Among the most appalling diversions, Wagner noted that $121 million was taken from tobacco settlement funding and added to the state pension fund for teachers.

That move suggests the obvious, that the teachers union has more political clout in Harrisburg than low-income working people.

Increasingly, state voters have been saying such behavior must stop.

Restoring tobacco settlement money to adultBasic will cover about half the cost of the program. Beyond that the giant Blue Cross/Blue Shield companies, including Pittsburgh-based Highmark, should restore their support for the program, making up most of the difference. A small portion of necessary funding should come from requiring adultBasic participants to pay more than the current $36-per-month premium.

Unlike many other problems today, saving adultBasic requires only a short-term solution because the national health care reform law passed in 2010 is designed to dramatically expand health care coverage in 2014.

Wagner is right in calling for a transparent discussion about the use of tobacco settlement money. The funding for adultBasic should be restored, as originally intended and legislated. The state’s $4 billion budget hole means many difficult cuts will be necessary, but ending adultBasic does not have to be one of them.