Illinois House Minority Leader Tom Cross (R-Oswego) and Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno (R-Lemont) said yesterday that they are upset Gov. Pat Quinn has not moved quicker in implementing a system that ensures state Medicaid recipients are qualified for the program. Quinn and lawmakers claimed back in May when the General Assembly passed a bill to produce $1.6 billion in annual Medicaid savings that $350 million in cuts would come from kicking people off Medicaid who make too much to qualify for the program or no longer reside in Illinois.

Quinn has hired a private contractor to administer the verfication program and says it will be up by January 1. But Cross wants the system running by October 1 and suggests that Quinn is delaying implementation until after the election.

Progressive health care advocates, who otherwise opposed many of the General Assembly and Quinn's Medicaid cuts, have generally supported the verification program as a sensible cost-saving measure.