Lawmakers in the Illinois House voted to slash health care for the state's poor.
The House passed the plan late Thursday afternoon. It calls for cutting services by roughly one-point-three billion dollars. It would reduce care for hundreds of thousands of people and end it entirely for others. William McNary is with the group Citizen-Action Illinois. He says in human terms, the cuts will be damaging: “People will not get less sick, because we make these cuts. As a matter of fact, in many cases it’s going to drive up health care costs over time because some of the people who would seek preventive care will now seek after-the-fact care.”
The legislation also reduces payments to hospitals and nursing homes by about 240-million dollars. It now moves to the Senate for consideration. A move to raise cigarette taxes by a dollar-a-pack to help paydown the medicaid backlog will likely be considered separately. The overall package is meant to close a multi-billion-dollar hole in Medicaid funding and strengthen the state's shaky budget.