Audit finds Illinois spent $4.6M on Medicaid coverage for dead people

09/09/2019

A federal health department audit found Illinois spent $4.6 million in Medicaid payments on behalf of deceased beneficiaries.

TAGS: budget, Medicaid, taxes

Tax Day: Where do Illinoisans’ state tax dollars go?

04/17/2018

Pensions and employee health insurance costs consumed nearly a quarter of Illinois’ fiscal year 2018 budget.

TAGS: education, Health and Human Services, health insurance, higher education, Medicaid, public safety, taxes

Federal judge’s Illinois Medicaid ruling squeezes state government cash flow

By Craig Lesner, Ted Dabrowski

07/06/2017

Medicaid has ballooned to cover more than a quarter of Illinois’ population, with spending at $5.4 billion, up 141 percent 2015 compared with 2000. Now that a federal judge has ruled Illinois must speed up its Medicaid payments, the state’s Medicaid payment will increase $83 million each month, for a total monthly payment of $376 million.

TAGS: budget, Medicaid, Moody's Investor Service

Fact-checking BGA’s claims on ‘low-spending’ Illinois

By Ted Dabrowski, John Klingner

05/23/2017

While the Better Government Association has claimed Illinois’ budget contains no fat to trim, a deeper analysis reveals the state has many areas of expensive inefficiency to reform in state and local government costs, the Medicaid program and K-12 education.

TAGS: BGA: Better Government Association, budget, education, local government, Medicaid, municipal government, state worker pay, taxes

Illinois Medicaid expansion costs are already double initial projections

By Jonathan Ingram

03/09/2017

Between 2014 and 2016, Illinois’ Medicaid expansion cost $4.6 billion more than its supporters had forecasted, crowding out services for Illinois’ most vulnerable residents.

TAGS: budget, health care, Medicaid

Illinois politicians’ remedy for state flirting with recession? Multibillion-dollar tax hikes

By Ted Dabrowski, Craig Lesner

02/08/2017

A new report from the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability shows Illinois has experienced falling tax collections, which may indicate trouble in the state economy; spending reforms – not tax hikes – are what Illinois needs to right its fiscal ship and boost economic growth.

TAGS: AFSCME: American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, Christine Radogno, corporate income tax, income tax, John Cullerton, Medicaid, pensions, property taxes, sales tax, taxes

How Illinois can turn its Medicaid program into a true safety net

01/24/2017

Illinois should roll back the state’s Obamacare Medicaid expansion and institute work requirements to save Medicaid for truly needy Illinoisans.

TAGS: ACA: Affordable Care Act, budget, health care, Medicaid

How Illinois can end its Medicaid nightmare

12/15/2016

After hundreds of waiting list deaths and an unsustainable enrollment explosion, Illinois policymakers must act swiftly to contain this growing nightmare. Thankfully, they have options.

TAGS: health care, Medicaid

Hundreds on Medicaid waiting list in Illinois die while waiting for care

11/23/2016

Illinois has a Medicaid crisis. With an Obamacare Medicaid expansion program that continues to spiral out of control, newly obtained data confirm fears that the expansion program would prioritize able-bodied adults over the state’s truly vulnerable residents.

TAGS: health care, Medicaid

National election results give Rauner opportunity for Medicaid overhaul

By Ted Dabrowski, Craig Lesner

11/16/2016

The time is ripe to offer private insurance options to needy Illinoisans through premium-assistance programs and Medicaid savings accounts.

TAGS: ACA: Affordable Care Act, health care, Medicaid

Unlocking Opportunity: How Occupational Licensing Reform Would Promote Equitable Empowerment in Illinois

Illinois finds itself at a crossroads: will it empower minorities and poor people to unleash their potential, or will it perpetuate an inequitable status quo? For far too many Illinoisans, opportunity is unfairly and unnecessarily out of reach. Illinois ranks in the bottom ten among all states in social mobility and last among Midwest states...

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Unlocking Opportunity: How Occupational Licensing Reform Would Promote Equitable Empowerment in Illinois

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Brandi Lentz

Process for unionizing non-state workers raises red flags

CBS Chicago: Illinois’ highest-paid superintendent receives $400K per year to oversee 1,200 students