The Capitol Fax Blog » All Kids worries

Friday, Jun 30, 2006

The Tribune reports there are growing concerns about All Kids.

“Two days before the launch of Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s signature health-care plan, All Kids, medical groups are voicing serious concerns about the program’s viability and physicians’ interest in participating.

“‘We are extremely, extremely worried about whether the program will run smoothly enough to allow access to care,’ said Dr. Peter Eupierre, president of the Illinois State Medical Society, a physicians group.”

At issue is growing dissatisfaction in the medical community with late payments by Illinois’ Medicaid program, a problem that could discourage physicians from taking on new patients under All Kids. Also, dissatisfied doctors may decline to take on new care-management responsibilities for Medicaid patients, a move planned to make All Kids affordable.

Still, the publicity appears to be working.

The governor claimed early success Thursday with the announcement that 43,000 previously uninsured children had enrolled in All Kids–close to the 50,000 enrollment target the state had set for the first year.

UPDATE: Despite what some people are posting in comments, an administration spokesperson just said the rumors that the All Kids enrollment list was padded with KidCare and Medicaid clients is not true. So, unless you’ve got some evidence, please stop.

- posted by Rich Miller

9 Comments

- Cassandra - Friday, Jun 30, 06 @ 9:18 am:
What the figures don’t tell us is how many enrollees were already eligible for KidCare but hadn’t bothered to sign up and how many are shifting from employment-based insurance because the state insurance is cheaper and more comprehensive. Other than very modest co-pays, those medical cards cover everything. And, given the new emphasis on proof of citizenship, it should be easy to shift Medicaid-recipient kids with no proof of citizenship over to Allkids, which stresses than immigration status is not
considered in determining eligibility. Presumably, though, Illinois state taxpayers would have to pay the full freight for those who can’t prove immigration status. Or perhaps Illinois will just ignore the federal regs. It’s happened.

So a program which was hyped as providing needed insurance for little uninsured children is actually, in the main, a program for the already-eligible, for those who have access to employment based insurance, and for illegals.

I would rather see taxpayer dollars go for health care than for corrupt contractors and our grossly overstaffed state bureaucracy. As a matter of fact, I think all Illinois residents should have access to the same cheap health care as our state employees and legislators have.

But, as usual, Blago wasn’t very honest about
what he was doing, and that could come back to
haunt in the form of more state financial problems.

- Check the numbers - Friday, Jun 30, 06 @ 9:33 am:
Rich,

Someone should verify the numbers because 43,000 is almost certainly not the number of kids whose parents are purchasing Medicaid. I’m pretty sure that most of the kids that they’re counting are Medicaid or Kidcare enrollees, not Allkids. It’s analogous to the White Sox having a promotional give-away at a scheduled game and 43,000 attend. Even though 42,500 were going to the game anyway, the Sox PR department attributes the entire turnout to the seat cushion give-away.

Bernie Schoenburg, the Governor’s fact checker, should question this.

- Ben - Friday, Jun 30, 06 @ 11:01 am:
From insiders that know, I heard it was about 1500 of truly AllKids in mid-June so 43,000 is way off. Most of the other 41,500 would have been eligible for Kidcare or Medicaid if they had the motivation to apply earlier.

The real issue with Allkids is that many will expect this to be run like a real insurance program. They will be sadly disappointed when they are treated by the Medicaid program and do not get a higher level of care.

Limited services and having to use only Medicaid enrolled providers will be shock to most.

- heet101 - Friday, Jun 30, 06 @ 11:35 am:
If you want to know why doctors are really so concerned by this new program, check out this news story regarding a town-hall meeting held in southern Illinois regarding late Medicaid payments earlier this week. http://www.advocatepress.com/articles/2006/06/29/news/news01.txt

- zatoichi - Friday, Jun 30, 06 @ 11:44 am:
The physicians assigned to treat all the children signed up for AllKids are located in Assumption. Hospital stays will be in Centralia and all lab work will be done in Rockford. Concentrating the work loads should help the program be more cost effective and affordable.

- Anon - Friday, Jun 30, 06 @ 12:31 pm:
Over 30,000 of those ‘enrolled’ in AllKids were already in KidCare and were just moved to the new program.

- "B Team" - Friday, Jun 30, 06 @ 2:42 pm:
Has there been an audit on the published numbers? Can’t wait for that audit result.

- Sick(&tired) - Friday, Jun 30, 06 @ 9:47 pm:
1. 3 persons from HFS went to Chicago to do sign-ups. Set up in their location for the weekend - NO TAKERS.

2. 2 persons from HFS went to the Sangamon County Fair to do sign-ups. NO TAKERS. Just complainers.

From 4 figure total sign-ups to five figures in two weeks? Not bloody likely unless, as mentioned heretofore, 30K KidCare recipients were grandfathered in. 43K minus 30K (KidCare)minus 2K (the number of sign-ups from people in the know,) = 11,000 signed up in the last two weeks. Yea, right.

So far the printing costs alone for this program alone are in the millions. Too many chiefs who don’t know what they’re doing, all ordering the same forms in different amounts, and on and on.
I can see this stuff languishing in the state’s warehouses for years to come.

- In The Know - Sunday, Jul 2, 06 @ 6:20 pm:
You’ve asked for proof that Kid Care #’s are being folded into the AllKids count. Led by a person from the Gov’s office, something called the AllKids Training Tour has been underway around the state for about a month. Community organizations and medical providers have been the target audience. The fact that existing Kid Care #’s are being counted in the AllKids count was acknowledged by those doing the training. There will be no “KidCare” program after July 1. This information has also been provided to the Medicaid Advisory Council for HFS via enrollment counts, etc. It’s a fact Jack!

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