Medicare

Medicaid 59: A detailed list of reforms

By Jonathan Ingram
05/21/2012
In February, Gov. Quinn told lawmakers that the rendezvous with reality had arrived. He informed them that they must “reduce expenditures” in the Medicaid program by $2.7 billion this year. Soon thereafter, lawmakers in the House committed to reducing “the accrual of Medicaid obligations” by $2.7 billion. The following proposal meets this goal without steep...

Diagnosis: Disaster – The $44 billion price tag of state retiree health insurance

By Jonathan Ingram
02/28/2012
The problem Illinoisans are beginning to see the dangers of another unfunded liability: free or subsidized health care for retired state workers. The state has promised, in today’s dollars, nearly $44 billion in retiree health benefits to government employees over the next thirty years. Unfortunately, it has not set aside any funds for those future...

Pres. Obama Offers States ObamaCare “Flexibility”

02/28/2011
This week, Pres. Obama put his support behind a bill that will purportedly give states flexibility by allowing them to "opt-out" of certain ObamaCare provisions. But does it really provide the solution states are looking for?

Healthcare without Premiums

01/31/2011
Currently in Illinois, 90 percent of retired state employees (or their survivors) do not pay premiums for their healthcare coverage.

Spotlight on Spending #18: Illinois Foster Grandparents Program

By Chris Andriesen
12/01/2010
The Problem Encouraging volunteerism among Illinois’s senior citizens is a worthy goal, with many benefits for both individual volunteers and those they serve. Illinois’s Foster Grandparents Program, housed in the Illinois Department of Aging, is meant to connect “volunteers” with “opportunities for seniors to work with children with exceptional needs.” However, the program’s structure leads...

Future Expenses: Financing the Spending of the Past

By Chris Andriesen
11/22/2010
by Ashley Muchow Using data from the CBO’s 2010 Long-Term Budget Outlook, Mercatus Center’s Veronique de Rugy has charted the long-term path of federal spending on three of its largest components–Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and interest on federal debt. Here’s the kicker: interest costs, if they remain on their current path, are set to become the majority of...

WSJ Highlights Need for Health Care Transparency

10/26/2010
Today’s Wall Street Journal carried a special report on how Medicare claims data can be used to root out suspected waste, fraud and abuse (like the NYC family-medicine physician who was flagged for pocketing more than $2 million in 2008 from Medicare thanks in part to administering an odd battery of tests). Earlier this year, we testified in favor of creating...
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Chicago Forward 2026: A pro-growth plan to end city budget deficits

Chicago’s $1.15 billion projected budget gap is the latest in a decades-long string of structural deficits. Making Chicago’s high taxes worse is not the solution.

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Diana Graham

Process for unionizing non-state workers raises red flags

By Paul Kersey
06/19/2014

CBS Chicago: Illinois’ highest-paid superintendent receives $400K per year to oversee 1,200 students

By Ted Dabrowski
05/02/2016