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Tovia Siegel with Healthy Illinois Campaign said grassroots
groups and lawmakers protested Friday in Chicago. They’re
demanding the governor reverse his decision to freeze the
program of health care for noncitizens between the age of 42 and
64.
“Ultimately we do want all ages regardless of immigration status
to be covered,” Siegel told The Center Square. “These are
low-income immigrants.”
In 2020, Illinois approved state taxpayer subsidies to cover
noncitizen health care for those over 65. The program was
expanded in 2022 to include those 42 and older. Estimated costs
without any controls was more than $1 billion for the coming
fiscal year.
The overall budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 has
taxpayers on the hook for $550 million for the program. State
Sen. Steve McClure, R-Springfield, said the entire idea is not
sustainable.
“If you put money here, you don’t have other money to go into
other places, so in fact that’s exactly what you’re doing,”
McClure told WMAY. “It’s really frustrating for all of us.
Earlier this month, Pritzker announced he would implement copays
for the noncitizen health care program of up to $250 and freeze
the program for those between the age of 42 to 64. The 65 and up
program will be frozen if more than 16,500 noncitizens enroll.
McClure said there are limited taxpayer funds and criticized
supermajority Democrats for not realizing that when they
approved funding migrant health care.
“You don’t necessarily think about what you’re doing and
sometimes you get into things that you sort of start to realize
were a bad idea and I think that is reflected in the governor’s
decision to change the policy up a little bit,” McClure said.
While federal dollars are not allowed for such a program, Siegel
said that’s not necessarily true.
“There is federal reimbursement under emergency Medicaid for
anything that’s deemed an emergency which is actually a pretty
wide range,” Siegel said.
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