Candidates share plans for future of health care

Posted 10-14-2006 - Pantagraph.com

Candidates share plans for future of health care

Saturday, October 14, 2006 8:50 PM CDT

By Matt Adrian
matt.adrian@lee.net

SPRINGFIELD - Health care perennially ranks as a top issue for voters, and the Illinois gubernatorial candidates have taken notice. However, they are looking for ways of getting health care to Illinois' neediest residents while medical costs grow and eat up larger portions of the state's budget. Gov. Rod Blagojevich, State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka and Green Party candidate Rich Whitney all have their own proposals.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat, is promoting his All Kids health insurance program and other reforms, such as increasing eligibility for Medicaid programs.

"Every child in Illinois gets health care. No state in the history of our country has done that," Blagojevich said during a debate in Decatur in early October. "We're helping our seniors with prescription drugs."

However, the expanded programs come at a price. Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes recently issued a cautionary financial forecast estimating the costs associated with the Medicaid change will increase as much as $275 million annually.

Other factors, such as state pension costs and the repayment of bonds, will make it more difficult to have new spending, he noted.

Topinka, a Republican, wants to push the state toward a managed care system that she claims will provide health care to the neediest Illinois residents while keeping costs down. She estimates this will lead to a $2.9 billion reduction in Medicaid expenses over a four-year period.

"We're not kicking anybody out of Medicaid," Topinka said. "Everybody who wants it will be grandfathered in."

The Blagojevich administration argues Topinka's proposal will hurt children.

"I think it's absolute nonsense," said John Filan, the governor's budget director, in an August press conference. "If you cut $2.9 billion from Medicaid, people will lose health care. Children will lose health care."

Topinka counters the cuts come from moving to managed care and ferreting out fraud and not cutting people from the welfare rolls.

Increasing the use of managed care isn't a new idea in Illinois. The state currently has 116,182 of its more than 2 million Medicaid recipients enrolled in a voluntary managed-care program.

While Illinois has 6 percent of Medicaid recipients in managed care, the national average is more than 50 percent, according to a bipartisan legislative report issued in 2004.

"Right now, it's failing everybody," said state Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon, the co-chairman of a bipartisan task force on the issue. "It's failing the taxpayers. It's failing the providers. Most importantly, it's failing the people it's meant to serve ... because medical providers won't take them."

Topinka also wants to pursue a block grant to cover future Medicaid expansion.

While the governor has pushed an expansive health-care agenda, the results have been mixed.

The I-Save-Rx program, which allows Illinois residents to import drugs from Canadian and other overseas pharmacies, has run afoul the federal government. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration opposes drug importation, arguing the medications may not be safe.

The state's auditor general recently branded the program illegal and reported that only 3,689 Illinois residents used the program.

Blagojevich attempted to use the I-Save-Rx to purchase flu shots from overseas without FDA approval. As a result the state may owe a vaccine company more than $8.2 million for unused shots.

In the lead-up to the November contest, Blagojevich launched the All Kids program, which allows parents to purchase low-cost health insurance for children who are not eligible for the state's existing welfare programs.

At the program launch, nearly 5,000 children were able to get the health insurance. The program also led to more than 40,000 previously uninsured children enrolling in state funded health programs, like Kidcare.

Through the All Kids program Blagojevich has flirted with creating a single-payer health-care system like that found in Canada.

Green Party candidate Rich Whitney is pushing for a single-payer system.

"It's better to have a publicly accountable system than the one we have now, which isn't accountable to anyone except the insurance company stockholders," Whitney said.

The election is Nov. 7.

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Where they stand

Following are key points of health-care plans from the major gubernatorial campaigns.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich

-- Started All Kids program, which provides low-cost. insurance to uninsured children.

-- Expanded Family Care to cover an additional 210,000 adults.

-- Created I-Save-Rx, a controversial program that allowed Illinois residents to purchase drugs from pharmacies in foreign countries.

Judy Baar Topinka

-- Wants to move Illinois to a managed-care system.

-- Proposes $2.9 billion in cuts in Medicaid spending over four years, mostly through cost savings from switch to managed care.

-- Would pursue more federal funding for Medicaid.

Rich Whitney

-- Wants to push the state towards a single-payer system.

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