SPRINGFIELD - State Senator Heather Steans (D-Chicago) has proposed a measure to jump start Obamacare in Illinois. The feds informed the state last year that a new Cook County measure to receive federal health care assistance for hundreds of thousands of uninsured 19 to 65 yr old singles had to be statewide before Cook County could participate. SB 26, which would require Illinois be plunged into Obamacare, is analyzed in part to say:
Beginning January 1, 2014, extends benefits under the State's medical assistance program to persons aged 19 or older, but younger than 65, who are not otherwise eligible for medical assistance under the Code, who qualify for medical assistance under specified provisions of the Social Security Act, and who have income at or below 133% of the federal poverty level plus 5% for the applicable family size.
And although the Illinois General Assembly publicized last session that it had "cut up the Medicaid credit card," with a 4 year moratorium on expanding Medicaid, Steans' legislation bypasses the restraint.
SB 26
Provides that the 4-year moratorium on the expansion of medical assistance eligibility through increasing financial eligibility standards shall not apply to this new class of persons.
SB 26 is scheduled to be heard in the Senate Public Health Committee Tuesday at 3:00 PM. The pro-Obamacare activist group Illinois Health Matters is urging its members to file committee hearing slips via Internet.
