Illinois health insurance

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status report:
Illinois state health insurance exchange

What progress is being made in setting up its federally-mandated Illinois state health insurance exchange?"

About state health insurance exchanges

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How did Illinois officials vote on health reform?

H.R.2: Repealing the Health Care Bill

#14

Date of Vote: 1/19/2011 Status: House passed 245-189, 1 not voting

HOUSE|SENATE

1/19/2011--Passed House amended. Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act - Repeals the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, effective as of its enactment. Restores provisions of law amended by such Act. Repeals the health care provisions of the Health Care and Education and Reconciliation Act of 2010, effective as of the Act's enactment. Restores provisions of law amended by the Act's health care provisions. [more]

Yes (11)

• Judy Biggert
• Bob Dold
• Randy Hultgren
• Timothy Johnson
• Adam Kinzinger
• Donald Manzullo

• Peter Roskam
• Robert Schilling
• Aaron Schock
• John Shimkus
• Joe Walsh

Our
Pick

No (8)

• Jerry Costello
• Danny Davis
• Luis Gutierrez
• Jesse Jackson
• Daniel Lipinski
• Mike Quigley

• Bobby Rush
• Janice Schakowsky

how healthy is living in Illinois?

Illinois is ranked as the 29th healthiest state to live in, according to the 2010 America's Health Rankings® by the United Health Foundation. This ranking is unchanged from 2009.

The good news:

• Illinois was praised this year for its low rate of occupational fatalities (3.5 deaths per 100,000 people); its access to prenatal care (86 percent of pregnant women received care within the first trimester); and its high rate of high school graduation (with 79.5 percent of ninth graders graduating in their four years of high school).
• The percentage of the population smoking decreased from 21.3 to 18.5 percent.
• Public health funding went up from $55 to $62 per individual.
• In the past ten years, the rate of deaths due to cardiovascular disease decreased significantly, from 431.7 to 284.7 per 100,000 individuals.

The bad news:

• The state's challenges include high rates of both binge drinking and preventable hospitalizations, as well as high levels of air pollution.
• Its violent crime rate is also fairly high, at 497 offenses per 100,000 population.
• The prevalence of obesity has increased in the past ten years from 20.9 percent to 27.3 percent.

Illinois' best and worst category rankings:

• Occupational fatalities – 10th
• Early prenatal care – 10th
• Primary care physicians – 11th
• Air pollution – 41st
• Preventable hospitalizations – 42nd
• Prevalence of binge drinking (18.5 percent of population) – 44th

more details

• See the United Health Foundation's latest findings on Illinois.
• Trust for America's Health ia another source for key Illinois health quality findings. In addition, 2010's federal health reform, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), included the creation of a prevention fund to provide more than $16 billion over the next 10 years to invest in effective, proven prevention efforts, like childhood obesity prevention and tobacco cessation, and the site has a report on how it impacts Illinois here.

get local health results

State snapshot too large? Get county-by-county health rankings for Illinois, from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Population Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin.

does Illinois have a health insurance high risk pool?

Illinois Comprehensive Health Insurance Plan
Toll-free 1-866-851-2751 (in-state only) or (217) 782-6333

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Starting in 2010, Illinois started offering health care insurance coverage to residents through the federally established temporary high-risk pool program. To find out more about Illinois's participation, click here.

Risk pools are state-sponsored programs to help people with a history of medical problems in their family to purchase coverage. These pools are for people who can afford to buy health insurance, but are not able to get underwritten in the private market because of a pre-existing health condition. These programs can vary significantly from state to state in price, benefits and number of people served. Often insurance companies doing business in the state are required to contribute to the pool to keep it in the black. In the best cases, they allow people to be able to switch jobs or become self-employed without the fear of losing their health insurance coverage. Read more about risk pools here.

how to find health insurance in Illinois

Cover The Uninsured is a national effort to highlight the fact that too many Americans are living without health insurance and to demand solutions from our nation's leaders. Read more information on its efforts. It is a project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

• Cover The Uninsured's facts on the uninsured in Illinois and all other states.
• The Foundation for Health Coverage Education's guide on how to find health insurance in Illinois.
• Materiales En Español – Guías para encontrar cobertura de seguro de salud.

Georgetown's Illinois health insurance guide

Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute has researched and written state-by-state guides for finding and keeping health insurance. It updates these guides as federal and state policies change. A number of non-profit organizations help fund its research. Learn more about the Health Policy Institute.

Review Georgetown's guide for Illinois.

Health insurance plan report cards for Illinois

The National Committee for Quality Assurance is a private, non-profit organization that, among other things, provides health care plan report cards for consumers.

Go here to search for Illinois health insurance plan report cards.

Illinois government health insurance resources

State of Illinois Official Web Site – Official government Web site.

All Kids Covered – State program that offers health care coverage to children, pregnant women and their babies or helps in paying premiums of employer or private health insurance plans.

Health Care Information from the State of Illinois – Resources that provide specific resources on Illinois health – from Living in Illinois government Web site.

Illinois Cares – RX help for senior citizens and the disabled in Illinois.

Illinois Advocacy for Health Care and Medical Insurance Issues

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan – Health care assistance for denial of insurance benefits, slow pay on claims, claims partially cancelled, etc. Campaign for Better Health Care An Illinois coalition working to create an accessible, quality health care system for all.

Champaign County Health Care Consumers – a non-profit, grassroots organization founded on the premise of participatory democracy and the belief that meaningful reforms in the health care system will come only with the active involvement of consumers." A model site for health reform activism and health care resources for the low-income uninsured.