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Two days before the event, the governor was awarded the Hero of
Health Care Award by
America's Agenda: Health Care for All, a national health care
advocacy group, for his landmark All Kids plan, expanding health
care coverage to over 400,000 Illinoisans and for signing the Health
Care Justice Act into law. "Health care is a basic, fundamental
right. Healthy people are better able to learn, work and raise a
family," Mrs. Blagojevich said. "We have made significant health
care advances in Illinois, but we need to do more. I am pleased to
join the Illinois Campaign for Better Health Care and other groups
across the state to work towards making affordable, quality health
care a reality for all families in Illinois."
The Health Care Justice Act created the 29-member Adequate Health
Care Task Force, which is charged with developing a comprehensive
health care access plan that must provide all Illinois residents
with access to a full range of preventive, acute and long-term
health care services. The act requires that recommendations be
submitted to the General Assembly and strongly encourages enactment
of a plan by Dec. 31. The plan is to be implemented by July 1, 2007.
Last year, the governor included $1 million in the budget to help
the task force begin working on a comprehensive health care access
plan for Illinois.
"The Health Care Justice Act requires that we look at the
problems facing not just the uninsured, but the problems created
throughout our health care system," said Schakowsky. "It gives us
the opportunity in Illinois to look for bold and comprehensive
solutions. By setting timetables for action, the Health Care Justice
Act makes it clear that we do not have time for endless debate, but
that we must act now to make change."
"Expanding access to affordable health care is not only the right
moral thing to do, but also shows we value the lives of all
Illinoisans," said Jim Duffett, executive director of the Illinois
Campaign for Better Health Care. "We thank Governor Blagojevich and
first lady Patti Blagojevich for their leadership, vision and
commitment that has made health care a right, not a privilege for
people in Illinois."
The Illinois Campaign for Better Health Care is the state's
largest grass-roots health care coalition. The coalition includes
more than 330 local and statewide organizations representing
consumers, health care workers and providers, community
organizations, seniors, religious organizations, labor, disability
rights organizations, and other citizens concerned about health care
and wellness. The rally on Friday was in conjunction with the
American Medical Students Association national conference in
Chicago.
On March 29, Gov. Blagojevich was awarded the Hero of Health Care
Award from America's Agenda: Health Care for All, a national health
care advocacy group, for his continued leadership on improving
access to health care and for signing the Health Care Justice Act
into law. America's Agenda, a partner organization with the Illinois
Campaign for Better Health Care, advocates for health care for all
Americans and works with states to broaden access to health care
coverage.
"Governor Blagojevich's leadership in moving Illinois toward
health care for all is a model for the kind of bold and visionary
leadership America needs," said Mark Blum, executive director of
America's Agenda.
In November, the governor was honored with the Illinois Campaign
for Better Health Care's 2005 Outstanding Elected Official of the
Year Award. This award is presented annually to an elected official
who is judged to have done the most to advance the fight for health
care justice in the past year. The governor was honored for his
landmark All Kids plan, which provides access to affordable,
comprehensive health care to every child in the state, as well as
his commitment to affordable health care and prescription drugs for
working families, children and senior citizens.
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 Since taking office, Blagojevich has been a proven leader when it
comes to providing access to quality health care for Illinois
families, from young children to senior citizens, in stark contrast
to methods taken by many other states. For example, the neighboring
state of Missouri has dropped roughly 100,000 children and adults
from its health care programs this year.
Michigan and North Carolina have eliminated their state
prescription drug programs and have been transferring people
completely to the new federal Medicare drug program, which will
significantly increase their out-of-pocket expenses.
Specifically, Blagojevich has improved health care in Illinois
through:
: The
governor's All Kids program makes Illinois the only state in the
country to offer affordable, comprehensive health care coverage
for every uninsured child in the state. Of the 250,000 children
in Illinois without health insurance, roughly half come from
working and middle-class families who earn too much to qualify
for programs like KidCare but not enough to afford private
health insurance. Through All Kids, comprehensive health
insurance will be available to every uninsured child at rates
their parents can afford.
Expansions to
FamilyCare and KidCare : Since taking office in January 2003,
Blagojevich has expanded health care coverage to over 400,000
Illinoisans. The Kaiser Family Foundation has ranked Illinois
first in the nation for ensuring parents have access to health
care and the second-best state in the nation for providing
health care to children who need it.
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Illinois Cares Rx :
In June, Blagojevich signed the "No Senior or Person with
Disability Left Behind" law, which created the Illinois Cares Rx
program, the nation's most comprehensive response to fill in the
gaps created by the federal prescription drug program. Seniors
could have seen their out-of-pocket expenses increase by almost
$3,000, but because of this new program will not have any
increase in costs or loss of benefits at all. Over 230,000
seniors have already enrolled in the program to date.
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Prescription drug
coverage : Under the Blagojevich administration, Illinoisans
benefit from a wide array of programs designed to assist them
with the high cost of prescription drugs: Illinois Cares Rx, the
Rx Buying Club and the I-SaveRx drug importation program, the
first program in the nation to allow citizens to purchase lower
cost, safe prescription drugs from Europe and Canada.
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Women's health :
Since taking office, Blagojevich has been a proven leader for
women's health, increasing funding each year. In addition, the
governor expanded a program to provide free breast and cervical
cancer screenings to uninsured women. The program has already
provided over 98,000 free screenings. Last summer, the governor
also signed several pieces of women's health legislation,
including a law requiring insurance companies to cover screening
for breast cancer earlier in a woman's life and a law requiring
insurers to provide coverage for ovarian cancer screening tests
for women who are at risk. The governor also created the
Illinois Healthy Women Program, which has offered family
planning and other health care services to over 167,000 women in
the state who were otherwise uninsured.
[News release from the governor's
office]
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