Gov. Quinn’s plan will help Medicaid - Julie Hamos, director, Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services | May 11, 2012

Letters to the Editor May 11, 2012 11:00PM
Chicago Sun Times

Illinois is facing a financial crisis that threatens the viability of the state’s Medicaid program, the health-care lifeline for the most vulnerable members of our society.

For years now, Illinois has failed to adequately budget for the costs associated with this critical program that provides health care for low-income children, persons with disabilities and seniors.

The nonpartisan Civic Federation reported that we must close a $2.7 billion budget gap to stabilize the program.

If we fail, we will wind up with backlog of $21 billion in unpaid bills by 2017. This would devastate not only the Medicaid program, but the state’s health-care system as a whole.

In the face of this critical challenge, Gov. Pat Quinn has demonstrated leadership. The governor has proposed a balanced plan that combines cuts in spending, a rate cut for providers and a revenue increase in the form of a dollar-a-pack increase in the price of cigarettes. The cigarette tax is targeted to deliver both economic and health benefits.

It would generate a dollar-for-dollar federal match of $337 million and reduce the long-term burden of smoking on the Medicaid system.

And it will shield providers from even steeper rate reductions than those we have proposed.

Unfortunately, some legislators have so far resisted the necessary steps to truly solve the state’s Medicaid crisis and save the system from collapse. They argue we can close the gap by tightening screening of applicants and beneficiaries. But that process is already well under way.

Anyone who thinks tighter eligibility screening will yield all the savings we need is not reckoning with reality. Tough decisions — and tough votes by the Legislature — will be needed to pull the state out of the deep hole that we find ourselves in.

We sincerely hope that legislators from both parties will join us in taking a balanced, bipartisan approach to solving the Medicaid crisis.

We can do this by enacting the tough but necessary measures that Gov. Quinn has proposed.

Julie Hamos, director,

Illinois Department of
Healthcare and Family Services

# http://www.suntimes.com/opinions/letters/12445882-474/quinns-plan-will-help-medicaid.html

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In Response to Director Hamos,

Yes IDHS has mismanaged Medicaid in Illinois for decades, but while the office you where appointed to oversee is re-organized, and the Medicaid system in Illinois is 'overhauled'. At what cost to those that rely on the State of Illinois and the Medicaid system that affords medical care, home health care services, medication for those whose quality of life is dependent for such services???

We all must contact our state legislators not just this week, but for weeks to come to express our concerns and thoughts on the impending severe cuts that the State of Illinois is headed for. The disability community, those with concerns of children receiving medical care under Medicaid - It is time to express our thoughts, our freedom of speech. It is not about one of us, it is about all of us...

Jim Watkins, director
Ability Chicago