Medicaid

Policy Chart: ObamaCare will make 1 in 3 Illinoisans a dependant of Medicaid

10/20/2011
Download this Policy Chart report here. See the full report for this Policy chart here. The federal health care changes hinge on expanding Medicaid eligibility to cover more Americans. While proponents of this supposed reform say more people will have access to care, the reality is that flooding an already-stressed Medicaid system with new enrollees...

Balanced Budgets vs. Mass Layoffs

09/06/2011
by Kristina Rasmussen Two headlines caught my attention this morning. Headline #1: Wood County [Wisconsin] budget starts with surplus For the first time in 10 years, Wood County will enter the budget process with a surplus. The state’s budget repair bill enacted this year requires public employee contributions of 5.8 percent to retirement plans. … Looks like...

Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals Strikes Down Obamacare’s Individual Mandate

08/12/2011
by Jonathan Ingram Illinois cannot afford Obamacare. The Medicaid expansion in Obamacare is expected to increase Illinois’s Medicaid spending to $10.2 billion by 2030. This represents a 77 percent increase over 2008 spending. Illinois already faces a spending crisis, particularly within Medicaid, and the Comptroller reports even longer delays for payments to doctors and hospitals treating Medicaid patients are...

Quinn’s “Cuts”

07/01/2011
by Amanda Griffin-Johnson On Thursday, Gov. Quinn signed the budget for fiscal year 2012, which begins today. As governor, he has the power to make line item vetoes and reductions to the budget passed by the General Assembly. In his budget announcement, Gov. Quinn claims to have made $376.4 million in budget cuts, but looking deeper...

ObamaCare Exchanges: Like Applying for a Mortgage

04/16/2011
by Amanda Griffin-Johnson As part of ObamaCare, states have the option to establish a health insurance exchange, intended to be a centralized marketplace for insurance. These exchanges must conform to federal guidelines, and if the state does not “demonstrate progress toward implementing an Exchange” by January 1, 2013, the federal government will be responsible for setting...

Quinn Spokesperson Wrong About Budget Cuts

03/11/2011
Following the Senate Republicans’ press conference Thursday, Illinois Statehouse News released an interview with the governor’s budget spokesperson, Kelly Kraft.  In her interview, Kelly paints a doomsday picture of what Illinois would be like after cutting $6 billion from the budget. Kelly states the governor has already made dramatic budget cuts, but we know that’s not true....

Competitive Grant Funding: An Innovative Approach to Program and Grant Budgeting

03/09/2011
by Collin Hitt The Illinois Policy Institute released Budget Solutions 2012 on Tuesday, March 8. To date, it is the only detailed, balanced, sustainable budget plan that has been published on state government general fund spending. The plan contains several recommendations for education and Medicaid spending, but it also includes one idea that was completely new and...

Budget Solutions 2012: A Sustainable Path for Illinois

03/08/2011
In February, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn proposed an unbalanced budget that relied on hefty tax increases and $8.75 billion in borrowing – not to mention, increased overall state spending by $1.7 billion. If followed, Gov. Quinn’s budget will prompt Illinois to run recurring, annual deficits of nearly $3 billion by the year 2016. By the...