Illinois Health Insurance News

Chicago Sun Times – Illinois likely won’t be able to start enrolling people in the state’s temporary high-risk insurance pool because state legislators failed to pass legislation necessary to establish the temporary high-risk health insurance pool. The deadline for establishment was July 1.

Kaiser Health News – States around the country are debating how to deal with health costs and tight budgets.

SkokieNet – This week, by a vote of 76-41, the Illinois House of Representatives concurred with the State Senate and passed the Health Care Justice Implementation Act (SB3047). “Passage of SB 3047 confirms Illinois’s commitment to President Obama’s recently passed federal health care reform,” said Jim Duffett, Executive Director of the Campaign for Better Health Care.

TPMDC – Five leading Democrats – including Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin – have publicly announced that they will vote for a public option if it’s offered up during the budget reconciliation process, where legislation can pass with a majority vote.

The New York Times – As members of the Obama administration and Congress met on Thursday to try to find common ground on health care, a new report warned that without comprehensive legislation, more than 275,000 adults nationwide will die over the next decade because of a lack of health insurance. Nearly 14,000 of those deaths would occur in New York State.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch – Washington insiders say that Republican Scott Brown’s come-from-behind victory in the Massachusetts Senate race changes everything about health care reform. If only that were true.

A new report about the state of the nation’s health care system is providing grist for lawmakers advocating for health care reform on Capitol Hill.

Chicago Sun-Times – The average cost of family premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance in Illinois jumped 30 percent from 2003 to 2008, according to a Commonwealth Fund report.

Chicago Tribune – Look no further than the Illinois Medicaid program to understand why more physicians are not being lured into the primary-care profession.