HEALTH INSURANCE PLANS EXTENDED THROUGH JUNE 30, 2012

State employees and retirees will be able to keep their current health insurance plans through Fiscal Year 2012.

On August 31, the state’s Chief Procurement Officer approved contract extensions for all current group health insurance providers through June 30, 2012. The current contracts had been set expire on September 28.

Thousands of Illinois citizens have faced months of questions and uncertainty about their health care and access to their doctors, ever since the announcement in April that the state was dropping Health Alliance and Humana insurance plans from state’s group health insurance program. It really is unconscionable the way this situation has been handled by the current Administration. Callers to my legislative offices have questioned why the change was done so secretly, quickly and without the input of the patients who will be affected.

CMS Group Insurance also announced that it will hold a Special Enrollment Period, from Oct. 10, 2011, through Oct. 28, 2011, with changes being effective Dec. 1, 2011.  This Special Enrollment Period will be offered to all members, but is limited to changing health insurance providers only.

State employees and retirees should check out the CMS Web site at http://www.state.il.us/cms/3_servicese_ben_choice/state-ben.htm if they have any questions.

TESTIMONY: STATE SHOULDN’T RUN HEALTHCARE EXCHANGES

On August 30, the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability invited testimony from healthcare advocates, the medical community, organized labor and business organizations about the state’s federally-mandated health care exchanges. As a result of the federal healthcare reform package, every state is required to establish a healthcare exchange where people can learn about and purchase health insurance plans.

Though states are floating concepts that include both online and brick-and-mortar exchanges, no decision has been made. However, according to witness testimony at the hearing, most parties agreed the state should not run the healthcare exchanges, but instead help establish the exchange and enforce related regulations.

The state must have an exchange available by January 2013; otherwise, the federal government will provide Illinois with an exchange.

I served as co-chair for that panel, and agree with witnesses that the state’s role in the new health-care exchanges should be limited. This law is moving us toward the slippery slope of socialized medicine, so we need to do what we can to keep a private-sector medical system with some financial assistance from the government.

FORBES COLUMN HIGHLIGHTS ILLINOIS MEDICAID REFORM

On August 27, Forbes magazine columnist Avik Roy wrote a column highlighting how the Obama Administration is trying to block common-sense portions of Illinois’ Medicaid reform package that passed in January. At issue is a pronouncement from Obama’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services rejecting reforms that simply require Medicaid applicants to provide some nominal proof of eligibility.

Roy’s article advocated state-control of the program, stressing the “dysfunctional” way Medicaid is run. The article quoted Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno, who noted, “Frankly, this is what enrages people. If all we want to do is find out if people are actually eligible for services, and the federal government is telling us we can’t do that, that’s absolutely ridiculous.”

One of the reforms required Medicaid applicants to produce more than a single pay stub to establish income eligibility; an innocuous requirement targeted at preventing fraud. But under the logic of the current federal administration, any new attempt to verify that Medicaid recipients are actually eligible for Medicaid is considered a “new” and forbidden eligibility restriction.

Senate Republican lawmakers have been longtime proponents of Medicaid reform. For years, Senate GOP legislators introduced and advocated for measures that would bring accountability and common sense to the Medicaid program; much of the January reform package was based on proposals long pushed for by Senate Republicans.

SENATORS BRADY AND BOMKE TO HOST FINANCIAL SEMINAR, SEPTEMBER 14

Citizens in Logan County can learn more about budgeting and finances at a free seminar I am sponsoring September 14 with my colleague Senator Larry Bomke of Springfield.

The “Be A Wise Consumer” Seminar is scheduled for September 14, from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., at the Oasis Senior Center, 501 Pulaski Street in Lincoln.

Admission is free and refreshments will be served.

The “Be A Wise Consumer” will offer tips on how to budget on a fixed income, how to protect retirement savings, and how to protect against consumer scams. Participants will also have the opportunity to search the state database for unclaimed checks and property.

For more information, contact my office at 309-664-4440 or Senator Bomke’s office at 217-782-0228.