Posted on 11/21/2006 4:33:30 AM PST by spintreebob
A key question Republicans asked on the Senate floor the day Governor Blagojevich's All Kids health care program was passed a year ago was a simple one: What are the residency requirements to be covered by All Kids?
There was no definitive answer given that day. That's because there are no residency requirements to qualify for Illinois' universal health care program for residents under age 19.
An All Kids enrollee can be an illegal immigrant. Illegal immigrants are not covered by Medicaid but they do qualify for Blagojevich's All Kids program.
And indeed, almost half that have been enrolled in All Kids thus far are children of immigrants, the Daily Southtown reports.
At the same time All Kids is expanding to over 28,000 children statewide, Medicaid bills for needy Illinoisans are being paid six months or more late. Doctors' offices are finding it too difficult to wait for government health care reimbursements. They are backing away from All Kids just as more and more children are signing up.
All Kids was a campaign ploy for Governor and his Democratic friends. Yes, there were Republicans who unnecessarily enabled this disaster and supported the program. Most who voted in favor of the program feared a vote against All Kids would endanger their re-election efforts.
There will come a time when all the stars align, the bills mount up, and Illinois will face financial ruin, all because immature, power-starved lawmakers -- at both the state and federal levels -- couldn't bring themselves to make the hard choices and find a better health care solution when the time was right.
Ironically, it's likely to happen when some of these same kids will be in their peak income years. They'll pay for their own health care, one way or another. Maybe more than once.
We've been concerned about this program for a while. Check out these other Illinois Review stories found in our archives:
Kids' docs back away from All Kids -- October 26, 2006 Anyone else not covered? May 10, 2006
Medicaid money slow or non-existent -- July 9, 2006
Republicans could have painted Dims as for the terrorists and welfare parasites. But instead, the Republicans painted themselves as hypocrites against the free market and against hardworking illegals who are needed by our economy and for an expensive big government approach to immigration.
The deplorable results are not the fault of the Dims. They are the fault of stupid Republicans in the US House.
To a large extend, our Dennis Hastert is the problem. He seemed so obsessed with covering for the Kjellander and Foley types that he had no grasp of reality. Just as personal problems were a distraction for Clinton, defending corruption has been a distraction for Hastert.
spin spin spin spin
all day long and thru the night
spin spin spin spin
illegal is still illegal
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