One of the screwier effects of Illinois labor law was on display recently when an arbitrator ruled that the state would have to terminate its contract with Maximus Health Services. In September 2012, the state hired Maximus to review Illinois’ Medicaid rolls and remove those who were no longer eligible for benefits. The company’s investigation identified 60,000...

If you’re not already disgusted by the budget implementation bill that passed today (shrubbery, Amtrak, grant unaccountability), try this on for size. The General Assembly hid ObamaCare-related Medicaid spending so that it doesn’t show up in the General Revenue Fund budget. A budget amendment hides “all federal matching funds” received to pay Medicaid costs for “individuals eligible for medical...

by Jonathan Ingram Illinois lawmakers set to decide whether or not to adopt ObamaCare’s voluntary expansion of Medicaid may want to read a new study published in the Journal of New England Medicine. In 2008, Oregon officials wanted to expand eligibility for their Medicaid program, but only had enough funding for 10,000 of the 90,000 eligible...

Proponents of ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion insist that the expansion is necessary to keep people out of emergency rooms for preventable conditions such as hypertension, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The only problem? Medicaid patients are more likely than the uninsured to use emergency rooms, especially for preventable conditions. In 2010, medical researchers at the...

by Jonathan Ingram Senate Bill 26 passed out of the House Human Services Committee and will head to House for consideration. But the Medicaid expansion this bill proposes is not right for Illinois. First, Illinois is under no obligation to expand Medicaid eligibility. Federal law permits, but does not require, states to expand eligibility levels for...