By Jonathan Ingram
07/23/2013
As we reported a few days ago, one of the five companies participating in Illinois’ ObamaCare exchange is Land of Lincoln Health Inc., a startup funded by a $160 million federal loan to cover about 20,000 individuals in 2014. In Vermont, the federally funded Vermont Health CO-OP was denied its state insurance license, with a state regulator noting that the...
By Chris Andriesen
06/16/2013
State Reps. Tom Morrison (R-Palatine) and Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) have proposed House Bill 3303, which is based the Institute’s pension reform plan. State Sen. Jim Oberweis (R-Sugar Grove) introduced a floor amendment to Senate Bill 2026, which is identical to House Bill 3303. The problem Illinois has the nation’s worst-funded pension systems. The unfunded liability currently stands at more...
By Jane McEnaney
05/11/2013
Both chambers were in session this week in Springfield. Moratorium on virtual schools passes out of committee On Tuesday afternoon, House Bill 494 passed out of the Senate Subcommittee on Charter Schools and was subsequently approved by the full Senate Education Committee. The Illinois Policy Institute’s Executive Vice President Kristina Rasmussen and Director of Education Reform Josh Dwyer attended both...
Join the Illinois Policy Institute for a luncheon on Monday, May 20, as we host Governor Sam Brownback.
The only way to end Illinois’ pension crisis is to empower government workers by transitioning benefits for all future work to a defined contribution system.
Earlier today, the House Appropriations-Human Services Committee heard House Bill 6253. This bill would impose ObamaCare's massive expansion of Medicaid eligibility in Illinois.
By Benjamin VanMetre
12/06/2012
The dust has settled from an uneventful veto session. No progress was made. The one attempt at reforming Illinois’ out-of-control pensions that legislators put forward is a step in the right direction, but ultimately would perpetuate the crisis by failing to prescribe the right medicine for the problem at hand. And the efforts to make things...
By Jonathan Ingram
12/03/2012
Illinois lawmakers have a choice before them. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or PPACA, permits states to expand their Medicaid programs to those up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. Under the law, however, Illinois is not required to do so. Hundreds of thousands of the people targeted by the Medicaid...
Last week in Springfield, there was very little legislative activity during the first week of veto session. Such limited action took place that the House canceled Thursday session, and it is rumored that the Legislature will only meet on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week as well. It is expected that the current two-week veto...
By Brian Costin
11/07/2012
In March of this year, state Rep. Derrick Smith was charged with accepting a bribe of $7,000 in exchange for supporting a grant for a fictional day care operator in an undercover FBI sting. The legislature expelled Smith from the legislature in August, but after Tuesday night’s elections it appears that Smith will return to the Legislature...
