Illinois To Unveil Insurance Program

[wndycty]

Illinois To Unveil Insurance Program

By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 6, 2005; Page A03

CHICAGO, Oct. 5 -- Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) will unveil a proposal Thursday to subsidize health insurance for 253,000 uninsured children in Illinois, a move that specialists describe as more far-reaching than any other program in the country.

Seventy-percent of the state's uninsured children belong to families that earn $40,000 to $80,000 a year -- too much to qualify for government programs but often too little to afford private insurance.

Under Blagojevich's All Kids proposal, endorsed by the leaders of both houses of the state legislature, a family of four earning $40,000 to $59,000 would pay $40 per month per child and $10 per doctor visit.

If the measure becomes law, the Blagojevich administration hopes to enroll 50,000 children the first year at a cost of $45 million.
-snip-

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/05/AR2005100502000.html

[merwin]

1. Very nice...

[wndycty]

2. Keep it kicked and please forward to Buzzflash!!!

:kick:

[gratuitous]

3. Socialized medicine!!! Aaaaahhh!!

Okay, someone had to say it, and I just wanted to beat the dumbasses to the punch.

[wndycty]

16. Kick

:kick:

[iconoclastic cat]

4. Well, he has to do something to get reelected.

If there is a Green candidate for mayor, though, I'm jumping ship.

[BayCityProgressive]

5. oh no! the communists are coming!!!

next thing you know they will even want to force adults to have health care!!!

[Voltaire99]

6. We could have this minimal decency in every state of the union.

It's as easy as taxing the fucking rich.

But large numbers of Americans prefer indentured servitude, as long as they can keep gays from marrying. And our own party, shamefully, wants to cut corporate taxes.

Quite a trade-off, eh?

[saigon68]

10. Well Put

The Fundies want Death for gay people

And Tax Cuts for the rich.

[wndycty]

7. Governor Blagojevich will offer plan for uninsured

Governor Blagojevich will offer plan for uninsured
By Alexa Aguilar
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
10/05/2005

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich
(Anne Ryan/AP)

Gov. Rod Blagojevich will announce today a new plan to provide health insurance to all uninsured Illinois children, a proposal his administration is touting as the most comprehensive in the nation.

Blagojevich has enlisted the Democratic leaders in both the House and the Senate to sign on as sponsors of the bill; they plan to introduce the legislation in this year's November veto session.

But Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson, R-Greenville, dismissed the plan as a "desperation move" by the governor that makes no sense considering $1 billion the state owes in back-logged bills to health-care providers.

The plan is aimed at the 253,000 Illinois children with no health insurance. Half of those are children whose parents earn too much money to qualify for the current KidCare program, but don't earn enough to purchase private health care. The other half are children who are eligible for KidCare but aren't enrolled, said Rebecca Rausch, spokeswoman for the governor.
-snip-

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/A008DBABB97F2C4A8625709200100920?OpenDocument

[wndycty]

8. Blagojevich: We'll insure all children

Blagojevich: We'll insure all children

By Kurt Erickson
[e-mail]

SPRINGFIELD -- Every child in Illinois would get access to a state-funded health insurance program under a plan to be detailed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich today.

In what may be a first in the nation, the governor wants to make sure an estimated 253,000 currently uninsured children are covered by health insurance, which would cost an estimated $45 million.

But, the governor's program would not be limited to just low-income children.

"Children should have health care and our new program makes affordable, good health care available to every child in Illinois," said Blagojevich in a prepared statement.
-snip-

http://www.pantagraph.com/stories/100605/new_20051006026.shtml

[wndycty]

9. Blagojevich Wants To Provide Insurance To Children

Blagojevich Wants To Provide Insurance To Children

(AP) SPRINGFIELD Gov. Rod Blagojevich wants to revamp state health programs to cut expenses and use the savings to provide insurance for all Illinois children, including 250,000 who now lack any health benefits.

The Democrat plans to propose his "All Kids" program Thursday. It would target children in families that earn too little for private coverage but too much to qualify for existing state-funded programs.

Parents would be able to "buy" their children's insurance from the state, with premiums and copayments that would be much lower than private insurance policies.

The plan, which has the endorsement of Democratic legislative leaders, would make Illinois the first state to offer such universal coverage for children, Blagojevich said.
-snip-

Bianca Sanchez, 35, a Chicago single mother of an asthmatic daughter, 7-year-old Soledad, earns about $35,000 a year working for a not-for-profit agency.

KidCare covered Soledad's asthma medicine until two years ago, when Bianca got a $2-an-hour raise that pushed her out of eligibility. She couldn't afford to add her daughter to her employer's insurance, so medicine that had been available for a $15-a-month copay suddenly cost as much as $800.

"I understand it's only one child, but it is very hard," Sanchez said. "If it weren't for my daughter's sickness, I wouldn't be asking for it."
-snip-

http://cbs2chicago.com/politics/local_story_278211145.html

[tritsofme]

11. With his polls in the shitter

He has to do something to get some positive media.

Maybe we'll get lucky and something good will come of this as well. I hope its not just an empty gesture.

[wndycty]

12. "Any criticism would look silly," said Madigan spokesman

Ambitious health-care plan proposed

Thursday, October 6, 2005

By Mary Massingale

of Copley News Service
SPRINGFIELD - Gov. Rod Blagojevich is proposing an innovative health-insurance program for children, regardless of income and financed by shifting most of the state's Medicaid population into an HMO-style system.

Leaders of the Democratic-controlled legislature are backing the $45 million proposal called "All Kids" for their fall veto session. The new program would begin operation July 1, 2006.
-snip-

Representatives for the legislative leaders rejected any political motive for the proposal, even as an election year looms.

"Any criticism would look silly," said Madigan spokesman Steve Brown. "This is close to the final step in the process."

Cindy Davidsmeyer of Jones' office agreed.

"Those who want to argue politics lose that argument because the governor has consistently expanded health care beginning with KidCare, FamilyCare and now All Kids," Davidsmeyer said.
-snip-

http://www.pjstar.com/stories/100605/REG_B7OSGD9A.050.shtml

[wndycty]

13. Plan targets gap in kids' coverage

Plan targets gap in kids' coverage

October 6, 2005

BY CHRIS FUSCO AND LORI RACKL Staff Reporters

Hundreds of thousands of Illinois children who do not have health insurance would be eligible for coverage under an ambitious proposal Gov. Blagojevich will announce today.

The unprecedented plan is aimed at families whose incomes are too high to qualify for Public Aid insurance for their children but still can't afford increasingly costly private coverage.

More than 250,000 Illinois children lack health insurance, according to U.S. census data and state research. About 75 percent of them come from middle-class families with household incomes between $40,000 and $80,000 a year.

The governor's plan, if approved by lawmakers, would make Illinois the only state to offer comprehensive health insurance coverage to every child, the governor's office and other health experts said.

Blagojevich pegs the cost at $45million the first year, when enrollment would be expected to reach 50,000.
-snip-

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-gov06.html

[cshldoc]

14. KidCare, from which this is descended, saved my family

I was in graduate school at University of Illinois, my wife was a nurse at Carle Hospital with 3 years experience, and we ended up pregnant a little sooner than expected (i.e. before I got that golden Ph.D.). Since she was at the time working nights, once the pregnancy got to wearing on her physically, she transferred from the hospital floor (which was grueling work) to an ENT practice at Carle Clinic. Little did we know that Carle Clinic and Carle Hospital were two separate business interests... We went along our merry way, confident since the administration had told us this was the case, that her seniority and benefits would transfer.

Well, my wifey went into preterm labour at 31 weeks and was ordered to bedrest, at which point, the Clinic terminated her since she had not been at her position for six months. With that termination went our insurance (hers and the baby's as well as mine). COBRA coverage was 800.00 per month, 60% of my pretax income. Carle Clinic was *totally* unrepentant, which is why I am so happy to drag Carle's name through the mud here today.

Anyway, I'd of course missed the deadline for enrollment in the University's healthcare plan for the semester, so we were looking at her entire OB/GYN prenatal care bill including an extra month of TLC before the delivery, 4 visits to the ER for preterm labor, the actual delivery, and then the real health expenses kicked in. Desparate, I called Illinois' family services, and after several trips to the welfare office (what a proud moment for this country), I arranged full coverage via KidCare for my baby and my darling - one year for the little one and 3 months for the wife. Of course, the Hospital did not know this was being done, and we'd been told not to tell them we were on public aid so that we we'd get better health care. It was with great pleasure that I told their collections office where to shove the $49,000 bill they tried quite adamantly to shake me down for, referring them instead to wifey's KidCare account ID and giving them the phone number of our local office. A grand day indeed that was. I also went in person and found the head of the collections department and gave her a stern tongue lashing for treating a former employee that way, and a wallet sized portrait of my daughter, to remind her that at the end of every aggressive collection call is a family who was already struggling.

Now, here's the kicker. we qualified for KidCare because as a grad student, I made 14,600 per year. We JUST BARELY squeaked over the threshold for eligibility. I highly applaud the effort to raise the income threshold for this program. May this program save many families like mine (I am now a successful scientist, my wife a part-time nurse and full-time mom) from certain ruin at the greedy, grasping hands of the medical services industry. Universal healthcare for all children should be a given in this, the richest and most powerful nation in the history of the World. That it's not, today, is a blemish on this country, a shame.

[wndycty]

15. Send me a private message

:kick:

[cshldoc]

17. Don't have enough posts on DU to do that

.. Sorry :-( My email is cshldoc at yahoo dot com if you really have something interesting for me :-)

[davsand]

20. You DO realize Carle billed uninsured people at a higher rate?

Carle's practice was always to bill the uninsured folks at a higher rate than those who have health insurance. They claimed it was due to a "negotiated" lower rate that insurance companies got. Your bill was probably about two to three times higher than it should have been...

Carle has been stripped by the local taxing authorities of all property tax exemption, in part, for this behavior. We are waiting for a response from the IL Dept of Revenue to see if we will be upheld on this revocation of tax exemption. The big hold up there is IDOR is waiting on a ruling from an Administrative Law Judge on the Provena hospital case (also here in Champaign county) on this same denial of tax exemption for uncharitable behaviors.

On a further note of discord for Carle, they are in the middle of an IRS audit that is expected to take at least another two years. I can't say I'm shocked to see that audit happening. Carle had a number of financial things going on that looked mighty shaky to us local tax wonks too...

Cheers!



Laura

[raccoon]

18. Well, if this becomes law, it's a start.

Maybe one day a law like this will be proposed for American adults who don't have insurance through their employers.

[greatauntoftriplets]

19. This is a great plan....

I hope the legislature agrees.

[chicagomd]

21. kick.

As a pediatric physician and father of two I think this very important and long overdue.

Although you do have to wonder:
1) How he plans to fund this considering the state already owes medical providers upwards of $1 billion dollars for services on Medicaid patients.
2) How much of this is driven by the fact Blagojevich needs a strong political talking point.

[IndyOp]

22. Wow - they owe $1 Billion for Medicaid patients?

Is some portion of that supposed to be covered by the federal government?

What is the solution of the Medicaid system, do you think? I have long been in favor of one big health insurance policy for all US citizens - that way expensive care for the elderly is spread out over all age/risk groups.

[wndycty]

23. Check out the site

www.allkidscovered.com