Earlier this week, with little fanfare, Illinois adopted one of the most progressive health care policies in the nation on behalf of the uninsured.  The Hospital Uninsured Patient Discount Act addresses a little known fact about our medical industry: that those without health insurance are regularly forced to pay medical bills that are two or three times the actual cost of care.  Under the new law, these markups will be capped at 35 percent.  The bill also limits the amount an uninsured patient can be required to pay a hospital in a single year at 25 percent of their gross annual income.

Both chambers of the legislature passed the bill last spring. It stalled, however, after Gov. Rod Blagojevich decided -- via an amendatory veto -- to raise the income eligibility limit to benefit higher-income households. He also sought to give the state's public health department authority to enforce it, rather than the attorney general.

Considering that the maximum eligible annual income under the original law was set at $127,200 for a urban family of four and $63,600 for a rural family, raising the income threshold under the guise of helping struggling people seemed a little far fetched. The Tribune editorial board thought so too:

Instead of signing the bill, Gov. Rod Blagojevich decided to "improve" it with an amendatory veto. Note the word improve is in quote marks. That's because the governor's changes are like performing heart surgery with a chain saw. Not a good idea. His changes may scuttle efforts to pass any bill [...]

No, the uninsured shouldn't be gouged by hospitals charging outrageous markups. It's even worse when they're victimized by a governor who grandstands about helping them pay their medical bills while effectively torpedoing efforts to do just that.

Regardless, both the House and Senate overrode the governor's veto on Tuesday. Hospitals now have have 180 days roll out their new pricing policies. Then an estimated 775,000 Illinois families could benefit from the law.