Untitled Document
When Gov. Rod Blagojevich makes his case for expanding
healthcare coverage to the bipartisan Joint Committee on Administrative
Rules, it’ll be with a much quieter chorus of supporters behind him
than when he first began his journey back in March. Although the head of the Campaign
for Better Health Care — the statewide coalition of health advocates
and providers that championed Blagojevich’s original Illinois Covered
proposal — continues to enthusiastically back the governor’s
goals, several members of the 300-member organization have quieted their
support in recent weeks. “We wouldn’t be in
this position if members of the General Assembly didn’t listen to the
majority of Illinois citizens who said the No. 1 issue that they want to
get resolved in Springfield was health-care reform,” says Jim
Duffett, the campaign’s executive director. “If these guys want to sit
on their blankety-blank hands showing inaction, then the voters will take
action next November.”
In May, the Illinois House
unanimously rejected the governor’s method of paying for Illinois
Covered, a $6 billion-generating gross-receipts tax. Then, after months of
budget negotiations, the legislature earlier this month passed a spending
plan from which Blagojevich immediately carved $463 million worth of
“unnecessary spending” before signing it. By loosening the eligibility
requirements of the state’s existing FamilyCare program — which
is subject to the approval of the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules
— state health benefits could be extended to 717,000 people. This includes uninsured parents
who earn less than 400 percent of the federal poverty level, or $82,600 for
a family of four, according to information provided by the governor’s
budget office. Single people who earn less than
$10,210 annually or a couple making less than $13,690 annually would
qualify, as would young adults between the ages of 19 and 21, who are not
eligible for All Kids. To accomplish this, Blagojevich plans to instruct
Department of Insurance director Michael T. McRaith, who also chairs the
board of the state’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Program,
“to develop a bridge for children with preexisting conditions who
become too old for All Kids and have no access to insurance.”
Under the modified proposal,
families that earn less that $61,950 per year could receive a $1,000 yearly
subsidy to help pay for health premiums, and a quarter-million uninsured
women could get mammograms, breast and pelvic exams, and Pap tests. How Blagojevich will now cover
more people than the previous Illinois Covered plan did, using a fraction
of the money that the business tax would have raised, remains unclear. The governor’s office has
indicated that taking cost-containment measures could help fund health
care. The Senate recently approved a pilot program requiring some Medicaid
recipients to enroll in a managed-care plan, which up until now has been
optional. Critics, some of whom have been
vocal boosters of Blagojevich’s health initiatives, say that the
governor’s cuts to member initiatives for local charities and
community services will ultimately hurt the poor — the very people
his health-care plan seeks to help. Danny Chun, a spokesman for the
Illinois Hospital Association, which rallied for Illinois Covered early on,
says that his organization is “very disappointed and very
concerned” about Blagojevich’s action, which reduced Medicaid
payments to hospitals by $40 million. The budget actually negatively
affects the Medicaid payment cycle because, Chun says, even though
there’s an increase of $118 million the state’s current
liability to providers is around $200 million.
“This kind of robbing Peter
to pay Paul really isn’t acceptable at all,” says the Rev.
Jennifer Kottler, deputy director of CBHC member Protestants for the Common
Good. “We are firmly behind the
idea that everyone in Illinois and the U.S. should have access to quality
affordable health care — it’s the right thing to do — but
you can’t do that at the expense of other things,” Kottler
says. Illinois Academy of Family
Physicians executive vice president Vince Keenan says that members of his
group are waiting to see how Blagojevich’s plan will work in
practice. “There
is a real sense of exhaustion out there,” he says. “People are
wondering, ‘When will this end, and how will this all work
out?’ ”
Contact R.L. Nave at rnave@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Aug 30 – Sep 5, 2007.
