Years of Medicaid expansions coupled with increased state
spending and a lack of significant revenue growth has pushed Illinois to the financial brink, Sen. Althoff said.
The package includes the following initiatives:
- SB
2463: Places a moratorium on new or expanded Medicaid programs, unless
approved by the General Assembly.
- SB
2846: Phases out the “Section 25” loophole in Illinois law over a ten-year period.
The loophole has allowed governors to pay previous year’s Medicaid bills
with the current year’s budget.
- SB
2466 and 2467: Creates a series of benchmarks for care, quality and
finances for providers to meet in order to receive reimbursement for their
services. It is estimated that moving to a performance-based managed care
system would result in $110 million in savings in the first year.
- SB
2464: Requires the Department of Healthcare and Family Services to use
two pay stubs to verify eligibility for Medicaid.
- SB
2465: Requires families to meet asset test standards for Medicaid
eligibility, which senior citizens and those with disabilities must
already do.
- SB
2468: Requires proving immigrant status eligibility for all All Kids
applications, which senior citizens and those with disabilities must
already do.
At the end of a busy week, the members set aside time to
remember the February 10, 2008, passing of Sen. Adeline Jay Geo-Karis at the
age of 89.
Members from both sides of the aisle spoke fondly on March
13 of their memories of Geo-Karis, who served for 25 years in both the Illinois
House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate. The senators recalled
anecdotes about their personal experiences with her as both a legislator and a
friend.
Working with a March 13 deadline to get legislation out of
committee, lawmakers moved even more initiatives forward during the week.
The state’s smoking ban was still a top topic in the Senate
Executive Committee. A bill that would require people who registered complaints
to provide their names (SB 2176) did not pass, though a bill that would
allow smoking in private or semi-private rooms in veterans’ homes was approved
(SB 1999).
The Identity Protection Act also passed, which would require
state and local governments to better protect the Social Security numbers of
citizens (SB 2113).
The Executive Committee also passed a bill targeting
“alcopops” to expand the definition to include alcoholic beverages that include
energy drink stimulants (SB 2472) and give them new labeling
requirements.
A bill that would allow caregivers to provide medical
marijuana for up to five patients without background checks (SB 2865)
passed the Public Health Committee, with all Republican committee members
voting against the measure.
Other bills approved by Senate committees during the week
include:
SB 2282: Creates an income tax deduction equal to the
expenses adoptive parents incur when adopting a child, including attorney fees,
court costs and adoption fees.
SB 1900: Creates a mandate requiring insurance
coverage for non-medical costs associated with Autism, including psychiatric
care, rehabilitative care and therapy.
SB 2072: Allows individuals with disabilities to
apply for the same homestead exemption as senior citizens.
SB 2148: Creates a Research and Development deduction
on income an inventor may earn from a patent that creates a new product or
process conducted in Illinois.
SB 2400: Creates the Biometric Information Privacy
Act, which requires state and private entities to develop policies to secure a
person’s biometric information and prevent it from being sold.
SB 2102: Allows local police access to employment
information kept by the state’s Department of Employment Security to better
track the addresses and place of employment of registered sex offenders.
SB 2365: Increases prison time and fines for
aggravated battery committed by a prison inmate or person in custody against a
corrections employee.
SB 2407: Requires the Department of Natural Resources
to establish a one-year project to harvest Asian carp in the Illinois River,
which are pushing out the native fish in Illinois.
SB 2382: Increases penalties for those who engage in
the solicitation of a minor through a computer and makes it an offense to
travel to meet a minor.