Gov. Rod Blagojevich has an intriguing product to sell with All Kids, his plan to guarantee that every child in Illinois has access to health insurance. The state would provide that coverage and pay for it with cost savings the governor claims can be achieved by converting the $8 billion Medicaid program to a form of managed care.
The problem of uninsured children is real and onerous. But Blagojevich has expended far more effort in trying to make a quick sell than in explaining in detail how his idea would work and whether the purported savings would sustain it in the future. Instead, he has crisscrossed the state in a public relations blitz designed to portray a groundswell of support for his idea.
Blagojevich has scheduled a huge rally Sunday to promote his plan at a North Side site he uses for major political events. The Tribune reports Friday that the push to boost attendance is so hard that state child welfare officials have been asked to prod foster parents to show up, offering free bus transit to make it easier. The Capital Development Board sent out solicitations to state construction contractors, asking them to support the program and attend the rally.
The rally is designed to pressure the General Assembly to approve his program during its brief fall session, which begins next week.
The Illinois Hospital Association backed the plan Thursday–even though it acknowledged there are big, unanswered questions. The Illinois State Medical Society, which represents doctors, has not yet given its support because it hasn’t seen sufficient details. That may be because the governor has been more forthcoming with rah-rah rhetoric. There’s not so much as a draft of legislation for lawmakers and medical professionals to review, and therefore some are reluctant to sign on.
The governor has lashed out at skeptics, demanding they declare whether “they support or oppose the concept” he is pushing. But legislators don’t vote on concepts. A Medicaid overhaul of the magnitude Blagojevich wants has long-term implications for patients who rely on this care and for the state.
The cash-strapped state is chronically late in paying bills for Medicaid services–a trade group for pharmacists said recently that the delays forced more than half of independent Illinois druggists to borrow money to keep doors open. State Comptroller Dan Hynes reports that the backlog of unpaid bills will continue to grow in the coming months. The state is about to take out a $1 billion short-term loan to help ease the current backlog, and it is unclear whether dramatically changing the structure of Medicaid will make payment problems better or worse.
The situation may become more complicated as Congress eyes a trim in health-care spending on the poor. Washington and Springfield split the costs of Medicaid here, so any rollback in federal aid could increase pressure on the state to spend more just to cover the needs of current Medicaid patients. It’s crucial to define and understand all those implications before Springfield acts.
All that may not lend itself to a snappy campaign slogan, but it is reality. That demands a thoughtful analysis of a complex issue, and that has not been provided by the governor. Blagojevich is pitching a product in which he believes.
If he supplants his campaign-style rhetoric with hard facts and figures about the enormous financial impact of this plan, he might make the sale in good time. But he hasn’t done that yet.
