Quality Health Care For All

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Every citizen should have affordable access to the highest quality health care whenever they need it. 

Yet people continue to lose the health insurance coverage that gives them access to affordable care.  Illinois private sector workers have continued to lose their private, employer-provided health insurance; today, well over 40% of Illinois workers – and over 57% of Latino workers - lack private, employer-provided health insurance.  Moreover, there are dramatic disparities by race in the health care outcomes of Illinoisans. 

In the state budget, Illinois’ Medicaid program is by far the biggest single item, representing about one-third of total annual appropriations.  Further, the state’s Medicaid liabilities grow at an average annual rate of 9%, while increases in state tax revenue grow at an average rate of only about 2.5%.  Partly due to medical inflation and partly because of a lack of revenue, Illinois does not meet its payment obligations. 

I support an expansion of Medicaid to cover everyone who cannot afford private coverage.  It is clear what the impact on Illinois of federal health care reform will be:  Medicaid’s role as the main provider of health care coverage for our most vulnerable citizens is going to grow.  If, as expected, the federal government expands the Medicaid program to cover more people, Illinois will have to raise significant new revenue to match the expansion in coverage.  Medicaid is an entitlement program, so everyone who is eligible and enrolls is entitled to benefits, regardless of cost.  This means two things.  First, it makes comprehensive fiscal and revenue reform in Illinois more urgent than ever.  Illinois is going to have to change its revenue system in order to pay for the expansion in Medicaid coverage and care. 

Second, along with new revenue demands, the pressure to manage health care costs at the state level will become greater than ever.  There will be a temptation to limit eligibility and/or reduce benefits in order to control costs.  While I believe that health care costs must be reduced, I do not believe this should be achieved at the cost of the quality of care for Illinois’ poorest citizens.  Rather, I believe that we have to shift resources to focus on preventative care, alter the financial incentives to spend limitlessly that exist in the health care system, and I believe that doctors, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies must do their share to hold down costs.

I support funding for a comprehensive study that would pinpoint the causes of health outcome disparities by race. 

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