Byrne on All Kids Audit
Another botched Illinois government program.
The Chicago Tribune’s Dennis Byrne also picked up on an audit of the All Kids program that I blogged about earlier this week:
All Kids has turned into just another government botch of a program that has failed to meet expectations. Except for its costs. Those, of course, wildly exceeded expectations. And helped state finances circle the drain.
Promises meet reality:
We were told All Kids would:
- Provide comprehensive health coverage for 253,000 uninsured Illinois children. In fact, in fiscal 2009 it covered 94,525.
- Protect working and middle-class families, as Blagojevich put it: “… who are doing everything they’re supposed to do — working hard, paying their taxes,” but can’t afford health insurance. Well yes, but the vast majority are illegal immigrants, who aren’t doing at least one thing they’re supposed to do — obey the law.
- Cost $45 million “in the first year.” In 2009 its gross cost reached about $79 million.
- Be partially funded by low monthly premiums charged to families. In fact, premiums paid in fiscal 2009 totaled less than $9 million, leaving the state’s net cost at $70 million. None of it qualifies for federal reimbursement (because the family income is more than 200 percent of poverty), so Illinois taxpayers pick up the entire net cost.
Among other problems:
The audit also found: Coverage is not always terminated when premiums are not paid, as required by the state administration code. The state Department of Human Services does not properly calculate family income to determine if the family is eligible for coverage. Annual reviews of family eligibility are inadequate. Other possible sources of family income were not checked. Controls were lacking to keep out-of-state children off the rolls and to ensure that children were not enrolled more than once. Marketing to gin up enrollees was originally expected to cost $3 million, but payments, based on questionable billing, ballooned to more than $8 million. The beneficiary was the Democrat-connected firm GMMB. Record keeping was so messy that the Department of Healthcare and Family Services needed 11 days to answer a simple yes or no question: Had it submitted copies of its contracts to the General Assembly as required by law?
The end game:
In sum, All Kids is serving only about a third of its intended beneficiaries at about twice the estimated cost. Because of these and other failures, Holland said the audit did not attempt to determine what the real costs would be if All Kids had been run properly.
It’s worth pointing out that the Institute was warning about these problems back in 2005:
Illinois will be begin a vicious cycle resulting in a much more expensive program than currently estimated.