Progress Illinois

Although hospital surgeries and emergency room visits dropped slightly in the third quarter of this year compared with the same period in 2007, health care consumption is generally considered recession proof. If people are sick, they go get checked out, regardless of the economic climate. That’s problematic in an economic crunch, because as revenue sources dry up, it’s often state and federal medical programs that are first on the chopping block. Illinois currently owes a whopping $4.5 billion to health care providers, including more than $2 billion in Medicaid reimbursement. While state officials advanced a crucial $1.4 billion borrowing plan earlier this month, it won’t begin to cover the state’s medical debt. And Illinois isn’t alone, according to the Washington Post:

Already, 19 states—including Maryland and Virginia—and the District of Columbia have lowered payments to hospitals and nursing homes, eliminated coverage for some treatments, and forced some recipients out of the insurance program completely.

Barack Obama’s transition team has signaled that extra help for Medicaid will be included as part of his administration’s economic stimulus proposal. And like spending on neighborhood stabilization -- which we covered last week -- it makes both moral and economic sense to prioritize Medicaid payments.

A new study by Families USA underscores the point.

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Last week, the Illinois House impeachment committee heard round after round of testimony about how Gov. Rod Blagojevich abused power by expanding the FamilyCare program despite legislative opposition. The topic was raised so often that Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie had to remind the committee that the relevance of the program wasn’t up for debate. “We’re not that kind of jury, I’m sorry to have to tell ya,” she said at one point.

Because of Blagojevich’s reach, attorney Margaret Stapleton of the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law—who has been defending FamilyCare’s 537,000 enrollees—acknowledges that the image of the progressive, state-backed insurance program has been bruised.

“It’s troubling that parties in the case are so hell-bent on taking away health care from low- and moderate-income people,” Stapleton told us. “[FamilyCare] has radically improved access to healthcare. People are getting good care and like [the program].”

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At a press conference in Chicago this morning, President-elect Barack Obama announced that former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD) will run the Department of Health and Human Services in his administration. Ezra Klein noted last month that the appointment of Daschle was a sign that Obama was very serious about health care reform. "You don't tap the former Senate Majority Leader to run your health care bureaucracy. That's not his skill set," Klein wrote. "You tap him to get your health care plan through Congress." 

Obama's language today -- he repeatedly referred to the need to address the issue "this year" and in "this administration" -- undergirds that point. So does the transition team's use of the internet.

A week after Obama was elected president, we highlighted a Washington Post story about the comprehensive and valuable internet fundraising database the Democratic nominee developed over the course of his historic run. The Post hinted that an Obama administration probably wasn't going to just sit on the list of ten million. Instead, he’d reach out interactively, summoning supporters “to push reluctant members of Congress to support legislation, to offer feedback on initiatives and to enlist in administration-supported causes in local communities.”

Two months before his inauguration, Obama has already chosen his first battle. You guessed it: comprehensive health care reform.

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Mickey Trznadel isn’t rich. The 55-year old Brookfield resident earns about $25,000 a year landscaping, painting homes, and plowing snow. But as someone with diabetes, high blood pressure, and a history of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, health insurance is an expense he can’t forgo. The last thing he needed was a jump in his insurance premiums. Of course, that’s exactly what happened. The Tribune’s Judith Graham has the details:

Monthly premiums for his individual medical policy, with a $1,000 deductible, were being lifted to $665.50 from $433.50 previously—a whopping 53.5 percent increase … Eventually, after repeated phone calls, Blue Cross and Blue Shield officials offered him a deal: Raise the deductible to $2,500 and the monthly premium would drop to $501.78. Trznadel took the offer.

In Illinois, Trznadel isn’t alone.

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Today saw no action in Springfield on the governor’s not-so-popular Emergency Budget Act. Two more days remain in the veto session, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens. Nonetheless, there were a few legislative developments worth noting:

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As part of their "Video Storybanking Project," the Campaign For Better Health Care (CBHC) spent Election Day interviewing over 50 Illinois voters about "why health care reform was an important issue for them."  The organization then compiled some of the answers into the following brief video:

Now, CBHC is seeking more stories from Illinoisans concerned about health care.  They're asking invididuals to record their own thoughts on the issue, upload them to YouTube, and send the link to the following email address: sludwig (at) cbhconline (dot) org. 

The beleaguered Cook County hospital system appears poised to make a comeback.

After two-years worth of cuts to health clinics, women's and pediatric care, and dozens of other essential services, funding will be restored to these sectors at the start of 2009. By garnering the county commissioners' approval of their $930 million budget proposal, the new Health and Hospitals System Board of Directors proved that they can operate free of political influence.

No amendments were tagged onto the spending plan (despite an attempt by some suburban Republicans to expand a community health initiative). Had they done so, it would have presented a major setback for the hospital board members who've embraced the monumental task of fixing the failing system, said Patrick Keenan-Devlin, a health care lobbyist with Citizen Action. "It would have undermined their independence from the beginning," he said.

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New evidence out today confirms that Illinois consumers have been paying a heck of a lot more for health insurance while getting less in return.

Coverage and real wages have declined steadily since 2000, while health care premiums for Illinois families have risen by 73.1 percent, according to a report released by the Campaign for Better Health Care (CBHC). If the pattern continues -- and consumers and employers continue to take on a greater share of the insurance burden -- Jim Duffett, CBHC's executive director, says the state's already struggling economy will be crippled.

"The tipping point is here. Businesses say they can't compete anymore," he said. "We can't afford not to [rein in costs]. Healthcare is the key to our economic security."

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As the recession deepens, many Americans are facing impossible decisions over which everyday necessities are the least devastating to pass up. As belts tighten, many are choosing not to refill their medical prescriptions, the New York Times reported yesterday:

“People are having to choose between gas, meals and medication,” said Dr. James King, the chairman of the American Academy of Family Physicians, a national professional group. He also runs his own family practice in rural Selmer, Tenn.

At the end of the piece, the Times highlights one such case from Champaign. Lori Stewart, a 45-year-old self-described  "insomniac textbook compositor, artist, and mother of [a] U.S. soldier" is deciding whether or not to discontinue her mother's Alzheimer’s medications, which she says only provide a marginal benefit.

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Using a notorious quote we grabbed from a cable access interview back in July, SouthtownStar columnist Kristen McQueary gets in a good dig at Marty Ozinga the day after Dick Cheney had to cancel a fundraiser with the Republican congressional candidate for health reasons:

Had Cheney's heart problems developed during the course of his Will County visit, rest assured he would have been in good hands. Ozinga could have recommended any number of area emergency rooms. After all, as Ozinga said, health care accessibility isn't a serious problem in this country: "You just go to the hospital, and you get taken care of."

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