Progress Illinois

The clock is ticking down towards the end of the General Assembly session.  It is time for our leaders to do the right thing and vote for the revenues needed to maintain the state’s crucial services.

In our troubled economy, the line between those who are poor and those who are not is blurring.  Many are struggling, and it is likely that more will join their ranks.  The Heartland Alliance recently reported that the number of Illinois residents pushed into poverty could grow by more than 400,000 this year.  If the nation’s unemployment rate reaches 9 percent, the poor population could grow by 253,000 in Chicago alone. Is this the time to slash the programs that help people get through tough times, just when more people need them the most?  That is what is on the table in Springfield right now.  Illinois leaders are considering responding to the plight of their neighbors by passing a “doomsday” budget that would decimate crucial programs rather than pass the revenue measures to maintain them.

Taxes pay for crucial programs that are in demand during tough times (just as taxes pay for parks, roads, bridges and police).  Illinois has not had an adequate tax system to fund these popular and necessary services.  We have gotten by with gimmicks and not paying our creditors.  Now, with the economy severely troubled, the Illinois tax system has gone from inadequate to disastrous.

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Nine years ago, Chicagoan Mark Emerson left his job with a large company that offered group health coverage to pursue the American dream and start his own business. He did not know that this would begin an ordeal in which he was "charged back into the stone age” as a customer of the private health insurance market. Mark and his wife now pay more in health care costs than they do on their mortgage payments and real estate taxes. Despite being two healthy people, their insurance costs continue to climb. Though he has reached the point where he can no longer afford his premiums, Mark is unwilling to drop coverage and face the potential nightmare of going without insurance. He feels stuck, and help is nowhere to be found.

Mark is an American icon—a middle class entrepreneur. But he is just one of many middle class folks in cities across the country who struggle with similar situations. Escalating health care costs. The foreclosure crisis. The rising price of energy. Food prices and urban food deserts. Our perceived freedom as ordinary people to decide who to be, what to do, and how to live has increasingly drifted out of our control. We have to ask whether we are making progress as a country in improving our quality of life.

And, for that matter, what defines progress?

A report issued this month by the Columbia University Press and Social Science Research Council, titled “The Measure of America: American Human Development Report,” gives a fresh perspective on the concept of progress. It is the first and only report to combine the three issues Americans care about most -- health, education, and income -- in one measure.

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This year in Springfield, the main players in the health insurance industry provided a case study in how they resist even the simplest changes. They once again illustrated how they do not understand, or at least do not take seriously, that the health care system is in crisis and approaching a crossroads.

About a third of the uninsured in Illinois – 600,000 people – are between the ages of 18 and 30. Working together, two Chicago-based organizations, Public Action for Change Today (PACT) and United Power for Action and Justice, came up with a basic solution to assist many of these uninsured young adults -- one sponsored by Sen. Dan Kotowski (D-Park Ridge) in the Senate, and Reps. Beth Coulson (R-Glenview) and Julie Hamos (D-Evanston) in the House. The proposal required employer-based group insurance plans to allow employees to keep their children as dependents under their insurance until the age of 30 (or until they acquire different insurance or get married). The employer would not be required to pay any portion of this dependent coverage and could pass the full tab onto the employee.

The idea behind this plan is to simply provide a new option -- at least for the families that could afford it -- to cover their young adult children with decent insurance. To the extent they are financially able, many families would be continuing to assist their kids in any event as they return from college, make their way through graduate school, or take entry level jobs without benefits. Since the parents would likely be responsible for the costs of any serious health expenses, making sure their kids have proper insurance is obviously in their interest. However, the age limit on dependents often bars them from adding their young adult children to their coverage.

The proposal by PACT and United Power represents a minor tweak to the current health care system. It would cost the government nothing. It would cost employers nothing. Insurance companies would have thousands of healthy young people as new paying customers, who in turn would improve the overall health profile of the employers’ insurance groups. By helping mostly middle class Illinois families help themselves, it would put a significant dent in the uninsured population.

Seventeen other states have passed similar reforms. Indeed, the sponsors found broad support for the proposal in both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly. So it should be easy to pass, right?

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