Bill That Says Nothing Passed By Senate That Gets Paid Too Much

7:36 pm, 10/26/05

Bill That Says Nothing Passed By Senate That Gets Paid Too Much
Emails from concerned readers indicate that the Governor's "AllKids" health insurance plan has just whipped right through the State Senate 32-23. Alarmingly, the bill is allegedly twenty pages long, but only contains nine pages on the program itself, which don't actually say anything:

...But specific premiums, co-payments and co-insurance are not spelled out, with the draft bill stating that the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services will determine them according to a scale based on family income.

The draft amendment to House Bill 806 also allows HFS to offer families subsidies toward the cost of privately sponsored health insurance, when such a move is cost-effective. Partial coverage or limited coverage also will be offered "as a means of promoting retention of private or employer-sponsored health insurance."

The actual mechanics of making the program work with doctors, hospitals and pharmacists would be determined by a state advisory committee.

HFS also would be granted the authority to implement the program through emergency rule-making, thereby temporarily bypassing the needed approval of a bipartisan panel of 12 lawmakers.

The draft says nothing about how the switch from a fee-for-service Medicaid system to a managed-care system will work. That, too, will be determined later through a rule-making process.

A Blagojevich spokeswoman, Abby Ottenhoff, said, "That's how managed care is implemented."

I understand that HFS is one of the agencies that was accused of claiming millions of dollars in bogus "savings" during the last state audit. Hilariously, the Governor's cost-cutting agency has now spent nearly $1,000,000 to hire a consulting firm that will attempt to determine why we aren't saving money. With the Governor's pals pleading guilty and the Enron-like bond scam taking new heat, it might be a good idea for newspapers statewide to follow the model of the Belleville News-Democrat and start keeping a state government police blotter.

Update: ...and right through the House. Amazing.