Chicago-area seniors and people with disabilities will start to enroll
in state-contracted private health insurance plans today under the
Integrated Care Program (ICP). The Medicaid-managed care system will be
headed by the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services
(HFS), but health care advocates were quick to caution that it might not
be a good deal for Illinois in the long run.
In fact, the Illinois
Campaign for Better Healthcare now questions how Illinois Health
Connect, another HFS program that they say is more cost-efficient with
higher quality care, will survive. Read more »
If he's going to vote against the final health care package, Rep. Dan Lipinski is going to have to answer to Midge Hough.
You might remember Hough's tragic story from the fall, when she appealed
to the Democratic gubernatorial candidates at a health care forum
sponsored by the Campaign for Better Health Care. Last year, her
24-year-old daughter-in-law passed away two months before her due date
after being denied health insurance because her pregnancy was considered
a pre-existing condition. Shortly after, Hough was shouted down
by Tea Party Patriots at a Lipinski town hall meeting in Oak Lawn when
she tried to thank her representative for his vote in favor of the
House health care bill. Lipinski, admirably, told the hecklers to let
her speak. Today, she's asking him not to side with the same people he reprimanded. Watch it:
The State Senate passed a bill establishing the Health Care Justice Implementation Task Force, which
would monitor the implementation of federal health care reforms.
Last week, 150 activists paid a visit to Rep.
Dan Lipinski's 3rd Congressional District office in LaGrange in response to his opposition to any health care bill that does not sufficiently restrict public funding for
abortion services. On the street outside, constituents (some of whom can't obtain affordable insurance)
criticized his health care flip-flop and called on him to stop blocking
reform. Check out this video of the event, shot by the Campaign for Better
Health Care.
Meanwhile, PolitiFact took some time to analyze Lipinski's claim that the Senate health care bill allows taxpayer money to pay directly for abortion at federal community health centers. Their conclusion? "We think the issue looks more like a political dart than a legitimate concern."
Congressman Dan Lipinski has made it clear that if the Senate won't further strengthen the already-restrictive abortion language in their health care reform package, he intends to oppose
the measure when it's sent over to the House. Health care advocates
from the Campaign for Better Health Care want to make sure he
knows how betrayed many of his constituents feel. At 4 p.m. today, they will visit
Lipinski's LaGrange office to demand that he "walk in the shoes" of
the uninsured (and will even deliver a pair of shoes for effect).
According to recent data (PDF), over 16 percent of Lipinski's constituents lack health care coverage. Click here for more information about today's action.
It's not yet clear if Martha Coakley officially killed federal
health care reform. But her loss in the Massachusetts Senate special
election last week temporarily derailed it. Faced with new urgency, scores of Illinois health care
activists are fighting to get a bill passed.
A new video from the Dan Hynes campaign has been making the rounds online today. It splices together some footage from yesterday's Campaign for Better Health Care forum in which Gov. Pat Quinn appears a bit tired and distracted as Illinois resident Midge Hough recalls the ...
Chicago-area seniors and people with disabilities will start to enroll
in state-contracted private health insurance plans today under the
Integrated Care Program (ICP). The Medicaid-managed care system will be
headed by the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services
(HFS), but health care advocates were quick to caution that it might not
be a good deal for Illinois in the long run. 
