From the IL Policy Institutue
CHICAGO - The Illinois Policy Institute, a non-partisan free market think tank, applauds Illinois House Republicans for introducing three bills aimed at lessening the negative impact of President Obama's federal health care legislation. The Illinois measures include prohibiting enforcement of the mandate requiring individuals to purchase health insurance coverage, directing the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability (COGFA) to examine the fiscal impact of federal health care reforms on the Illinois state budget, and legislation urging the Illinois Attorney General of to file suit challenging the law's constitutionality.
"We applaud House Republicans for introducing legislation aimed at mitigating the adverse impact of the deeply flawed health care law," said Kristina Rasmussen, Executive Vice President, Illinois Policy Institute. "At a time when Illinois is experiencing record unemployment and deficits, this new federal law will cause unnecessary harm to our economy. Illinois residents can thank Representatives Mitchell, Bellock, and Mathias for their swift response to the over-reaching, unaffordable federal health care takeover."
Details on Illinois House Republican Legislation:
Prohibition on Individual Mandate (HB 6842, Rep. Bill Mitchell) - The federal health care reform includes a mandate for individuals to purchase health insurance if they do not currently have coverage. The "Health Freedom from Individual Mandate" legislation seeks to amend the Illinois Insurance Code to prohibit the enforcement of an individual mandate providing this prohibition on requiring individuals to obtain or maintain insurance should not render an individual liable for any penalty, assessment, fee, or fine as a result of failure to procure or obtain health insurance coverage. This proposed legislation is based on current Virginia law.
Resolution on GOFA Analysis of Fiscal Impact of Health Reforms (HR 1074, Rep. Patti Bellock) - The federal health care reform expands the Medicaid program and makes numerous other reforms that may grossly impact the state budget. Governor Pat Quinn has publically stated the fiscal impact of these reforms is not yet known and the State has not determined a cost estimate. This resolution provides for the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability (COGFA) to conduct an examination of the fiscal impact of the federal health care reform on the Illinois state budget.
Resolution Urging Attorney General to Seek Relief from Federal Health Care Reform (HR 1075, Rep. Sid Mathias) - This resolution urges the Illinois Attorney General to file suit against the United States Department of Health and Human Services, the United States Department of the Treasury and the United State Department of Labor, challenging the constitutionality of the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act." The complaint alleges the Act represents an unprecedented encroachment on the sovereignty of the States in protecting the freedom, public health and welfare of their citizens by mandating (1) massive increases in state Medicaid enrollments and by (2) impairing individual citizen's rights to make health care decisions, including the decision not to participate in any health care insurance program or scheme.
Showing posts with label bellock. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bellock. Show all posts
Monday, March 29, 2010
Friday, December 11, 2009
Patti Bellock & Kristina Rasmussen: Expansion of Medicaid is Not the Health-Care Answer
From the State Journal-Register
Much of the debate over national health-care legislation has centered on flashpoints like higher taxes, abortion and immigration.
Yet one major aspect of the health-care plans being developed on Capitol Hill has received relatively scant attention. House and Senate Democrats are planning on significantly expanding Medicaid in an attempt to decrease the number of uninsured.
Medicaid was launched in 1965 as a joint federal-state safety net that would help cover health-care costs for the poorest of the poor. Congressional Democrats’ health-care plans would swell Medicaid far beyond the program’s core focus.
In particular, the federal government would require Illinois to vastly expand our Medicaid operations to cover hundreds of thousands of new enrollees. This could translate into an overwhelmed system for current care recipients and providers, higher costs for Illinois taxpayers, and less local control over our state’s government health programs.
Let’s consider where we’re at today in order to get a better understanding of what this would mean for our state. We spend more than $11 billion a year on Medicaid. More than 2.6 million Illinoisans are enrolled in the program. During the last 10 years, liabilities have grown at a rate of 6.9 percent a year, in part due to eligibility increases. Program administrators are projecting a 7 percent spending increase for 2010.
According to a June report from the Taxpayer Action Board, if recent spending rates remain constant, “Medicaid spending will reach approximately $22 billion in 2019, which could represent roughly 50 percent of the entire state budget and would begin to crowd out other State spending priorities, such as public safety and education.”
Illinois is already having a hard time paying for its current Medicaid obligations — the state’s well-publicized payment backlog is clear proof of this problem.
With this in mind, a Medicaid expansion — even one partially or temporarily funded by the federal government — would make the outlook for balancing Illinois’ budget much more bleak than it already is. This doesn’t bode well for taxpayers, existing Medicaid recipients or providers.
Ongoing negotiations in Congress will determine at what level benefits would be set, when they take effect, and how the federal government and the states will share the cost. In the meantime, it is possible to get a sense of what an expansion could mean for Illinois. The numbers are not comforting.
Were Illinois to extend Medicaid to every uninsured resident making up to 150 percent of the federal poverty level at regular reimbursement rates, it would cost the Medicaid program an additional $1.5 billion a year, not accounting for medical inflation. Even if Illinois only had to pay a tenth of the expansion costs, the impact would still be staggering for a state already billions in the red.
Moreover, if we have to increase our doctor reimbursement rates to ensure sufficient physician participation to meet higher demand, overall costs would also go up significantly each year.
Currently, about one in five Illinoisans receives health-care coverage from Medicaid. If eligibility were expanded according to the income guidelines from the House plan, 690,000 individuals could join Illinois’ Medicaid rolls. This figure does not even include those who will drop their private insurance for public coverage.
Low-income children, their parents and the disabled have traditionally been first in line to receive Medicaid. These populations may suffer from adding more able-bodied adults to the system.
To make matters worse, state legislators would have less local control over how Illinois’ Medicaid system is designed, instead having to follow more federal mandates and having virtually no flexibility to reduce or control future rising costs.
Medicaid is an important program, but a pricey expansion would have Illinois run the risk of not delivering on promised care to enrollees. Other less-than-desirable funding options would include continuing to delay payment to providers, reducing the resources available to other state programs, or sending the state’s tax rates sky high.
Illinois residents deserve a better health-care alternative from Congress that focuses on patient-centered reforms empowering the doctor and the patient to make effective and economical health policy choices.
Is Washington listening?
Patti Bellock is a Republican member of the Illinois House of Representatives from Westmont. Kristina Rasmussen is executive vice president of the Illinois Policy Institute.
Much of the debate over national health-care legislation has centered on flashpoints like higher taxes, abortion and immigration.
Yet one major aspect of the health-care plans being developed on Capitol Hill has received relatively scant attention. House and Senate Democrats are planning on significantly expanding Medicaid in an attempt to decrease the number of uninsured.
Medicaid was launched in 1965 as a joint federal-state safety net that would help cover health-care costs for the poorest of the poor. Congressional Democrats’ health-care plans would swell Medicaid far beyond the program’s core focus.
In particular, the federal government would require Illinois to vastly expand our Medicaid operations to cover hundreds of thousands of new enrollees. This could translate into an overwhelmed system for current care recipients and providers, higher costs for Illinois taxpayers, and less local control over our state’s government health programs.
Let’s consider where we’re at today in order to get a better understanding of what this would mean for our state. We spend more than $11 billion a year on Medicaid. More than 2.6 million Illinoisans are enrolled in the program. During the last 10 years, liabilities have grown at a rate of 6.9 percent a year, in part due to eligibility increases. Program administrators are projecting a 7 percent spending increase for 2010.
According to a June report from the Taxpayer Action Board, if recent spending rates remain constant, “Medicaid spending will reach approximately $22 billion in 2019, which could represent roughly 50 percent of the entire state budget and would begin to crowd out other State spending priorities, such as public safety and education.”
Illinois is already having a hard time paying for its current Medicaid obligations — the state’s well-publicized payment backlog is clear proof of this problem.
With this in mind, a Medicaid expansion — even one partially or temporarily funded by the federal government — would make the outlook for balancing Illinois’ budget much more bleak than it already is. This doesn’t bode well for taxpayers, existing Medicaid recipients or providers.
Ongoing negotiations in Congress will determine at what level benefits would be set, when they take effect, and how the federal government and the states will share the cost. In the meantime, it is possible to get a sense of what an expansion could mean for Illinois. The numbers are not comforting.
Were Illinois to extend Medicaid to every uninsured resident making up to 150 percent of the federal poverty level at regular reimbursement rates, it would cost the Medicaid program an additional $1.5 billion a year, not accounting for medical inflation. Even if Illinois only had to pay a tenth of the expansion costs, the impact would still be staggering for a state already billions in the red.
Moreover, if we have to increase our doctor reimbursement rates to ensure sufficient physician participation to meet higher demand, overall costs would also go up significantly each year.
Currently, about one in five Illinoisans receives health-care coverage from Medicaid. If eligibility were expanded according to the income guidelines from the House plan, 690,000 individuals could join Illinois’ Medicaid rolls. This figure does not even include those who will drop their private insurance for public coverage.
Low-income children, their parents and the disabled have traditionally been first in line to receive Medicaid. These populations may suffer from adding more able-bodied adults to the system.
To make matters worse, state legislators would have less local control over how Illinois’ Medicaid system is designed, instead having to follow more federal mandates and having virtually no flexibility to reduce or control future rising costs.
Medicaid is an important program, but a pricey expansion would have Illinois run the risk of not delivering on promised care to enrollees. Other less-than-desirable funding options would include continuing to delay payment to providers, reducing the resources available to other state programs, or sending the state’s tax rates sky high.
Illinois residents deserve a better health-care alternative from Congress that focuses on patient-centered reforms empowering the doctor and the patient to make effective and economical health policy choices.
Is Washington listening?
Patti Bellock is a Republican member of the Illinois House of Representatives from Westmont. Kristina Rasmussen is executive vice president of the Illinois Policy Institute.
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