A group of Illinois families filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court yesterday over state budget cuts that make them ineligible to receive certain expensive medical equipment through Medicaid. This includes ventilators that can cost hundreds of thousands dollars and are needed by some children at all times.

Medicaid cuts that Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law last month dictate that parents must be below 500 percent of the federal poverty level to qualify for such equipment. A spokesman for Quinn told the Tribune that the state is already working to change the threshold to 800 percent of the poverty level.