SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (NEXSTAR) — Governor J.B. Pritzker and the Department of Healthcare and Family Services laid out new rules for a program that provides healthcare to non citizens.
Illinois was one of the first states to offer Medicaid-like services to undocumented people living in the state. Initially, the services were only available for people 65 years old and up. The state expanded it to people 42-years-old and up.
That version of the program was expected to come in way over budget. Projections from DHFS showed the program could cost the state over one billion dollars. The new state budget only allocates around half of that money to the program.
Pritzker (D-Illinois) pitched new rules, including an enrollment cap for people 65 and up, and a freeze on new enrollees in the younger age group. The changes would not effect people already enrolled in the program.
That didn’t stop advocates from panning the new guidelines.
“We were appalled by these announcements,” Tovia Siegel, Director of the Healthy Illinois Campaign said. “They come immediately after the legislative session without stakeholder engagement and conversation. And more importantly, they come at the expense of 1000s of low income immigrants in the state of Illinois who are going to be vulnerable, who will not be able to access life saving health care, because of its decision of the Pritzker administration.”
Pritzker also implemented co=pays of various amounts depending on the care provided. Under the DHFS proposals, a inpatient hospitalization would result in a $250 co-pay, and a emergency room visit would result in a $100 co-pay.
All of this is meant to drastically lower the cost of the program to the appropriation in the upcoming budget.
“The Senate and the House, have agreed to give us the tools to manage the program properly, so that it doesn’t reach a proportion that you named,” Pritzker said at a May press conference about the budget deal.”Instead, allows us to provide health care for the people who are on the program now, and make sure that we’re continuing the program going forward, but in a budget friendly way, so that everybody gets the health care that they need.”
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via WCIA.com https://www.wcia.com
June 20, 2023 at 12:55AM
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