Health care an issue in gubernatorial contest

Posted on 10-14-2006 - daily-chronicle.com

Health care an issue in gubernatorial contest
By Matt Adrian - Chronicle Springfield Bureau

http://www.daily-chronicle.com/articles/2006/10/15/news/news02.txt

SPRINGFIELD (LEE) - Health care perennially ranks as a top issue for voters and the Illinois gubernatorial candidates have taken notice.

However, they must find ways of getting healthcare 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 each have their own proposals.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich is touting his All Kids health insurance program and other reforms like increasing eligibility for Medicaid programs.

“Every child in Illinois gets health care. No state in the history of our country has done that,” said Blagojevich 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 will increase as much as $275 million annually. Other factors like state pension costs and the repayment of bonds will make it more difficult to have new spending, he noted.

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

“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 its 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 healthcare. Children will lose healthcare.”

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 has 116,182 of more than two million people 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 the bipartisan taskforce. “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 healthcare 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 election is Nov. 7.

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