Don’t Forget: Guv Shot Himself in Foot on Health Care

February 14th, 2008 at 12:09pm Aaron Chambers

Cap Fax Blog today highlighted some of the more interesting but largely unnoticed points of state Comptroller Dan Hynes’ recent report on state finances.

Cap Fax noted the comptroller’s observation that the rate of uninsured people in Illinois has not dropped, despite Blagojevich’s repeated new health care spending initiatives:

While spending more on health care, the number of uninsured in Illinois has not changed significantly. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately 1.76 million Illinoisans (13.9% of the population) were uninsured in 2003. In 2006, the estimate of uninsured was 1.78 million, or 14.0% of the state’s population.

Cap Fax added:

The governor’s office claims that the number of insured has increased since that Census report was issued, but the impact - while undoubtedly important to those who now have health insurance - hasn’t been huge overall, despite all the huffing and puffing from the guv.

I’d like to add one more point. Let’s not forget that Blagojevich actually cut Medicaid spending by $90 million when he vetoed more than $400 million from the state budget in August. In doing so, he constricted his own health care agency’s spending on his own top — priority.

In one section of the budget, lawmakers appropriated $2.706 billion in Medicaid spending on hospitals and Blagojevich reduced it to $2.666 billion — a difference of $40 million. In that same section, lawmakers appropriated $744 million in Medicaid spending on nursing homes, and Blagojevich reduced it to $694 million — a difference of $50 million.

If you’d like to see for yourself, the budget approved by lawmakers is here. The relevant hospital and nursing home funding is on page 436. Hospital spending is line 13 and nursing home spending is line 18.

Blagojevich’s veto message is here. The vetoes corresponding with the hospital and nursing home funding are on page 67 of the message. See the third and fourth lines of the page.

Entry Filed under: Health Care, Rod Blagojevich