PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The outcry that has accompanied Monday’s end of Pennsylvania’s low-cost health insurance program may pale in comparison to the firestorm that is likely to erupt when Governor Corbett unveils his budget proposals next month.

Some 40,000+ low-income Pennsylvanians will be affected when the nine year old AdultBasic program ends.

While enrollees will be able to sign up for “Special Care” coverage from the Blues insurers, it will cost several times more than the state program. The end of AdultBasic has become a cause célèbre among Democrats and social activists, who have been holding almost weekly press conferences and demonstrations.

But Franklin and Marshall College pollster and political analyst Terry Madonna says it’s just a skirmish compared to what may come, “The reaction to AdultBasic is a forerunner, if you will – a precursor – of what I think will be much larger concerns and demonstrations and cries.”

Madonna says without raising taxes, he sees no way Governor Corbett can close a multi-billion dollar budget gap without major program cuts.

Reported By Tony Romeo, KYW Newsradio.