Understanding Government

Wisconsin is not in the kind of fiscal apocalypse that faces Illinois, but they have a big problem: Medicaid coverage has rapidly expanded and, for the next four years, the federal government won’t pick up enough of the tab. Jason Stein and Patrick Marley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report that “Medicaid provides health care for one in five Wisconsin residents” and that “the group of programs has expanded faster here over the past nine years than in any state except Arizona.” The close battle for governor in Wisconsin has focused on how to lower Medicaid costs. (more…)

Illinois has applied for a $1 million federal grant so the state can better monitor skyrocketing health care costs.  According to Karla K. Johnson of the Chicago Sun-Times, the state’s Dept. of Insurance has received 186 complaints about health care rate increases in the past three years. The state, though, says it doesn’t have the resources to properly respond. “Illinois’ 81-page request portrays the state’s (more…)

People buying individual health insurance policies have seen their rates soar an average 20 percent nationally, according to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, an arm of H.M.O. Kaiser Permanente.

That’s ten times the official rate of inflation for the 12 months ending in May according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index. According to Bobby Caina Calvan of the Sacramento Bee, three quarters of the 14 million people with individual plans had their rates bumped up last year. (more…)

The Illinois state legislature passed a budget last week that does little to address the state’s $13 billion deficit. In fact, Jennifer Wessner of Illinois Statehouse News reports that the legislature outlined exactly one cut — slashing Medicaid funding by $200 million. (more…)

Full enactment may be four years off, but elected leaders in California were urged yesterday to get a head start in complying with the recently passed federal healthcare reform package. The advice on setting up an insurance exchange was delivered to a joint legislative session by someone who knows a thing or two about how to do it – Jon Kingsdale, executive director of the Massachusetts Health Connector, upon which the national reforms were based. (more…)