43 Comments - Wumpus - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 8:45 am: All added by Blago “She has some nerve planning to pay bills on time! What’s she thinking?” The nursing homes will close anyway if they don’t get their state checks in a decent amount of time. - Anonymous - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 8:50 am: Nonsense, how about memorandums of understanding so that you have to keep your promises Mr. Filan? How about paying your salary with bond proceeds? How about yelling and throwing things at staffers? All nonsene. If Blago wins I hope he has enough common sense to send you back to Mesirow so you can start pimiping out some of their products. - tistophone - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 8:53 am: No wonder she waited so long to offer anything of substance. If this is the best she can do, it will be smooth sailing for dems. - the Other Anonymous - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 8:54 am: From the press release quoted in Rich’s blog yesterday, it looks like Topinka wants to shave $2.9 billion from the Medicaid program, not $3.7. But that’s not the real issue here. Everyone (except Filan, apparently) realizes that state budget growth is tied in to increasing Medicaid costs. If you want responsible state budgets, you have to rein in Medicaid. This has been the case for well over a decade now. It’s true that no one’s found the solution to increased health care costs on the state level, but it’s virtually indisputable that health care costs have to be contained. So, score the Blago team an “F” on public policy. On the politics, though, give them an “A+.” Republicans are on the decline in blue states precisely because they are considered mean spirited folks who want to control people’s sex lives and eliminate government benefits like health care. The Blagojevich response plays right into people’s stereotypes, and makes it that much more difficult for Topinka to convince independents and moderates that she’s the type of Republican they’ll like. - ol-timer - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 9:02 am: Budget director John Filan also weighed in. ==== “I think it demonstrates an almost complete lack of understanding of the reality of finance, money and the budget,” ==== Filan talking about himself AGAIN? This after ripping-off the pension systems. Good job, Johnny Boy. - Yellow Dog Democrat - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 9:10 am: Look, if Topinka wants to argue that she can chop $2.9 billion from Medicaid by cutting waste & fraud, not coverage and benefits, all she has to do is show us the numbers. My bet is they don’t add up any better than the Blagojevich Lottery Proposal. Just wait until some joker with a calculator figures out what the average cost of Medicaid coverage is, divides it into $2.9 billion, and says “Judy Baar Topinka wants to cut $2.9 billion from Medicaid; that’s coverage for 10,000 people.” Yeow. - schroedk - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 9:10 am: At least Topinka has the guts to call her medicaid plan a “cut” or $2.9 billion. The current administration just simply doesn’t pay $2.9 billion worth of bills. Pretty much the same thing in my book. And secondly, like someone else posted previously, as far as “senior citizens getting kicked out of nursing homes”; is it better that they close entirely because they don’t get paid? I’m tired of the current administration claiming that everything’s just hunky-dory fine, nothing to see here, please go about your business. Things are NOT fine, and at least Topinka has the guts to say it and at least propose a plan with the intent of fixing it. Whether or not that actually happens if she gets elected remains to be seen. As typified by what the current governor “promised” before he was elected and actually delivered, everything a politician says remains to be seen. - J. P. Morgan - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 9:15 am: Anytime I need to deal with “an almost complete lack of understanding of the reality of finance, money and the budget”, I’ll just call up John Filan. Johnny, oh Johnny, how many financial shell games, pension grabs and unpaid bills will we see today? - DOWNSTATE - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 9:18 am: Of course the Dems are going to attack it.Their so called plan racked up another 17 bbbbillion in debt.Now the new plan will probably rack up 25 bbbillion in debt.From what I read here the Dems are running scared of the truth.This state is on it’s way down and our leadership is to stupid to realize it.All JBT is doing is using common sense and people will vote for that. - anon - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 9:26 am: A common sense plan? It sounds like the Topinka crowd is not only getting fundraising help but assistance labeling bad progams from the Bush Administration. They are the masters of taking an idea and generating a title that reflects the opposite of what their “plans” do. Healthy Forests Initiative (Reality: log forests), Clear Skies Initiatives (Roll back protective air quality measures), No Child Left Behind (Leave behind moderate income and low income ). - Yellow Dog Democrat - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 9:28 am: DOWNSTATE - I may be a Democrat, but I’ve also been one of Rod Blagojevich’s biggest critics here, and I can guarantee you that Rod Blagojevich is not running scared from Topinka’s proposal. He’s been anxiously awaiting it, demanding it, and he’s overjoyed. This is the battlefield he wants to fight the campaign on, not corruption. Unless some major scandal breaks, Topinka will spend the next 70 days explaining how her plan doesn’t really cut health care. And if you’re defending, you’re losing. To quote CapitolFax today: George W. Bush had the terrorism card, and Rod Blagojevich now has the image of little old ladies being tossed into the street and disease-wracked children begging to see a doctor. We all know Miller is no Blagojevich fan, he’s just calling them like he sees ‘em. I think anybody who could set aside their animosity for the Governor long enough to look at the politics of this objectively will have to admit that Topinka has blundered. - Cassandra - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 9:30 am: Filan has spent nearly four years being the guy brought in to clean up the Republicans’ financial mess. Now the mess is substantially worse. And he’s apparently not able to take the heat. It’s fun to be the new broom but when you have to start taking real responsibility for your decisions, voters get to see what you are really made of. In Filan’s case, I guess he can’t take it. And Blago is showing some signs of cracking as well. Welcome to accountability. Having said that, I think Topinka has, somewhat stupidly, handed Blago a huge campaign advantage as he goes around the state scaring seniors, parents planning to dump their current health insurance and sign up for Allkids, illegal immigrants benefiting from Allkis, moms on the dole, and others. One wonders how much of our current Medicaid expenditures go to pay for end of life nursing home care for middle class and wealthy seniors who have transferred assets to their kids to ensure eligibility for low cost care. I believe the feds have tried to restrict these abuses but only in a marginal way. If that problem were fixed, and other adjustments made, there would likely be large amounts of money available to pay for universal health insurance for Illinoisians as well as for end of life nursing care for those who truly can’t afford it. And universal health insurance is what she should be pushing, via a public-private partnership. Don’t the Repubs get it? Voters expect to get something back for their huge tax outlay. All this talk about the state running out of money….nobody believes it. And universal health insurance is clearly something voters across the country want. Not free health insurance. But guaranteed issue to all at reasonable rates. No more uninsured kids OR adults unless they choose to self insure. She really needs to tamp down the “sky is falling” rhetoric. Again, nobody believes it. Or if they believe it, they don’t believe it will affect them. - DOWNSTATE - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 9:39 am: YDD scandal follows this guy like a dog does a fire hydrant.The people will decide and I think the average voter,not blogger, will see this as workable. - Ben - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 9:40 am: Tried to go to Judy’s web site to actually look at the Medicaid budget ideas and it says the link is no longer available. Maybe Blago stole it! - (618) Democrat - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 9:43 am: First Topinka says she would raise income taxes on working men and women in Illinois and now she is going to cut almost 3 billion out of medicade taking health care away from our children who need it the most and putting some of our senior citizens out of nursing homes. Can’t wait to hear he next poicy. What is she thinking. - Southern Ilinois Democrat - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 9:44 am: Now all at once JBT is a fiscal conservative. Where was she when the GOP held the governors office and was busy running up a 5 billion dollar deficit? Why was she not screaming for reform and cuts at that time? JBT pointing fingers at Blago for financial problems is truly the pot calling the kettle black. - Southern Illinoisian - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 9:45 am: When a politician attacks something this hard, it must be pretty close to reality. Blago is afraid, and he should be. His blood is in the water, the sharks are circling, and Judy just threw him a lead weight full of all the pork and excess from his administration that she wants to dump. What’s Governor Handout’s legacy going to look like in ten years? Can you say “Dan Walker”? There was a real winner {snort}. - Angie - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 9:45 am: The people being harmed in the state of Illinois are the people who have had greedy Illinois hospitals sic their predatory collections goons on them over exhorbitantly overinflated medical bills, thus driving many many citizens into medical bill-induced bankruptcy. If Captain Blowdry wants to point some fingers, then he should take a hard look at the Illinois Hospital Association and the so-called “charity care” policies they claim to have. What has he done on that issue while the IHA whines about being attacked by unions that want to organize their employees? Judging by the latest Medicare fraud bust involving Illinois hospitals, the unions trying to organize employees and running corporate campaigns is the LEAST of their worries. So yes, what does Rod propose to do about this healthcare issue that he claims is the centerpiece of his re-election campaign? How about holding Illinois hospitals accountable in some of your speeches, Rod, instead of just taking in campaign contributions from the IHA? The guy is a fake and a phony. And then some. - Glenn Wood - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 9:57 am: Ask any nursing home owner, hospital administrator, clinic manager, doctor who take medicaid patients, mental health agency, or group home manager what they think of “block granting” the Medicaid program. She is way out there on this one. I would love to hear Schnorf’s take on this one. - zatoichi - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 10:00 am: There seems to be two worlds here. One world: “We have services for people in need. AllKids, Medicaid, health care, preschool, etc. Yes, the programs exist and we are doing all we can to make the state a better place to live. Our providers live in your community.” World Two “As a provider, my bills are three months over due and the state has not paid for the services we have provided. We will not be adding any new patients/consumers/customers funded by the state. We may be closing some programs.” Cut the nonsense. Pay the bills with earned money and live within your means. At least Topinka’s plan does not use borrowing to balance the budget. - Justice - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 10:01 am: A PLAN!!! Way to go JBT. Of course the geniuses surrounding Filan, and Filan himself, will disagree with anything that suggests the State CAN save money. It’s true that they inherited a large debt but have used idiotic and punishing methods to try and resolve the issue. They would be laughable it the results weren’t so severe such as significantly delayed payments to the care giving industry as well as all other providers to the State, giving raises to unions and cronies and none to middle managers, borrowing from the pension fund, while at the same time hiring otiose hacks and cronies by bypassing Veterans Preference and Rutan. But that gets more toward Monk and Greenlee. At least JBT has a PLAN which concepts elude Blogo and Filan. After all, these clowns have Illinois on the bottom of all 50 states in fiscal responsibility, and after the people handed Blogo a mandate. If you just fire all the politically appointed hacks, starting with Filan, you could save a bundle and get the same work done. It would have been nice to see a bit more emphasis on energy and helping make Illinois a leader in that area. But hey, tackling the hard issues like health care, education, transportation, and keeping business in Illinois won’t be easy. I just hope JBT is up to it and will call on a new invigorated pool of great talent to help set a new direction for Illinois, and not reach in the old bag of used up politicos. It’s all about trust. Blogo can’t do it, but can JBT? Does she have the balls? - Huckleberry - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 10:15 am: The Governor’s response was predictable and, as Rich pointed out, over the top. The difference between Topinka and the Governor on this issue, as with others, is that is an idea of substance. While it’s not an easy idea to coney to those who only want to read headlines and swallow whole whatever the media and pundits say, the fact is that real savings can be had by providing medical care for someone in a preventative fashion, as opposed to a “wait unil they are sick and then go to the emergency room” manner. That’s what the savings are predicated on, and it’s been proven to work in other states. Topinka has said, in the clearest terms that should be simple enough for everyone to understand, that savings will not be achieved by throwing thousands off Medicaid. The only people who lose under this proposal are those who are wealthy enough that the taxpayers should not be footing the bill for ther care anyway - and I’m talking about folks with incomes or assets over $100,000. Matbe it will turn out to be bad politics, but I don’t think so. And even if it does, it’s refreshing to see a bold proposal hat finds its origin somewhere other than simply polls and focus groups. - HoosierDaddy - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 10:24 am: Yes, Blago’s going to say that Judy kicks little old ladies out on the street and takes milk away from babies and strangles puppies…. but the fact is that Blago’s credit card government has robbed downstate teachers of their pensions put rural doctors in a bind. Try to find an eye doctor, south of I-80, for example, who will accept kidcare. Try to get an appointment with a dentist… it takes months! Gee, looks like Illinois has a health care plan just like Europe. Goody. Maybe before Blago proposes another great “giveaway” he ought to figure out a way to pay for it. - steve schnorf - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 10:41 am: A lot of over-the-top comments today. It appears the strategy is going to be for Filan to be out front so the Governor doesn’t have to talk about budget issues and numbers. Will that work? - Lovie's Leather - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 10:52 am: Excuse me, 618, when did Judy say she was going to raise income taxes? She didn’t. More lies coming from Blago democrats. You look at Blago, and he is sucks as governor. You see Judy putting together real policy initiatives that she thinks will make the state run better. All Blagojevich can do is take big national issues like stem-cell research and pretend that is what a governor is supposed to focus on. Here’s an idea gov… balance the freakin budget, fund retirement, and quit with these stupid programs that “we the people” can’t afford! Now, 618 says that Topinka is going to raise taxes. Huh, isn’t funny how Blago works. It is exactly the same as George Bush. We are gonna spend, spend, spend and not have the money to pay for it. I bet that comparison drives the dems nuts!!! - HANKSTER - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 10:58 am: Love Leather: “You look at Blago, and he is sucks as governor. ” Oh yes keep going with those wonderful arguments. - (618) Democrat - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 11:07 am: Lovie’s: Daily Hearld, Friday June 9, 2006. The headline reads: Topinka says she won’t sell tollway if elected. - Dan Vock - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 11:11 am: Schnorf: Definitely a lot of over the top stuff here, but I too was interested in your reaction to the “block grant” aspect of her plan. Them be fighting words for a lot of people, and it sounds like it would require a blessing from the feds… By the way, Cassandra, the Defecit Reduction Act did two things when it came to asset transfers. First, it increased the “lookback” period (the time span the state looks at to see if the applicant gave away money) from three years to five years. Second, it changed the starting point of the penalty period. Used to be, if you were assessed with a six-month penalty, the clock started running from the date you gave away your assets. So chances were it wouldn’t have all that big of an effect on you by the time you applied for Medicaid. Now, it starts the day you apply for Medicaid. Nursing homes are worried that means nobody will be paying the bills between the time their patients run out of money (when they need Medicaid) and when the Medicaid penalty period is finally over. Read all about it here: http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=85361 - Arthur Andersen - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 11:23 am: Well, if Mr. Filan is going to act as the campaign’s point person on budget and fiscal matters, he should be mindful of the State Ethics Act which prohibits him from campaigning on State time and using state facilities, resources, etc. to do so. Oh, wait, isn’t that what he did yesterday? Oops. - steve schnorf - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 11:28 am: Let’s see the details on the block grant proposal. My guess is she doesn’t mean that’s how she would distribute money to the providers, it means that’s how she would like to get it from the feds, which would definitely take a waiver. I think the feds would respond well to the concept, but it would come down to the details. - steve schnorf - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 11:31 am: Discussing and explaining the budget, including analyzing other’s proposals, is part of Filan’s government job; the results may be politically good or bad, but it is appropriate that he comment. I don’t think that’s a violation of any ethic’s rules at all. - Lovie's Leather - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 12:44 pm: HANKSTER, if you would have continued to read after I said Blagojevich sucks as governor, you would have noticed the basis for my comments!!! - Buck Flagojevich - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 2:10 pm: Hummm. Topinka’s plan states it would eliminate persons from Medicaid based on individual assets and net worth. That sounds OK with me. I don’t want to support some person in a nursing home who may have a couple of million stashed in a trust, do you? Also, does anybody here really believe families with incomes of $75,000+ really can’t afford health care for their kids? If they can’t, they budget as well as Filan and Blagojevich. If Topinka needs to raise taxes from 3 to 4% how many people are really going to see a big difference? Not many. One percent is not that great a hike. As for keeping taxes low, why? The state is broke and we need the money. It’s not like the low personal income tax is helping to attract businesses to Illinois. Relax, give her a break. At least she didn’t come up with a grandiose plan that has no or inadequate funding. I do have to admit that it could be rather funny if Illinois was the first state to become bankrupt and it all points back to Blagojevich’s plans and schemes. - Anonymous - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 2:12 pm: Wake up and Smell the Coffee: That is one of the most ridiculous and uneducated comments out there. - Buck Flagojevich - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 2:15 pm: Cassandra, Regarding your health care idea. Of course the republicans and democrats don’t understand ideas such as the one you put forth. That is because it is a form of Socialism. Something we haven’t started to get into much in this country, although Blago is trying real hard. - HANKSTER - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 2:31 pm: “Also, does anybody here really believe families with incomes of $75,000+ really can’t afford health care for their kids?” The average cost of healthcare for a family of four, according to the Kaiser Foundation, is over $10,000 a year. If you think a family of four can afford to spend over $10,000 a year on healthcare (very basic care), with a mortgage, food and living expenses, car,savinf for retirement, maybe even a kid in college, then I think you are poorly mistaken. - Anon - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 2:49 pm: Hankster, Last I checked almost every family bringing in at least $75,000 has to have at least one job providing health insurance, which fyi costs about $1000 post-tax dollars out of the paycheck a year. Now if they do have the health insurance then their normal doctor visits are about $10-20 each, so figure $80 because a normal family of 4 doesn’t take more than 1 regular visit a year. Now add up if you get sick, generic medicines cost $5-12/script, preferred brands are about $15-25/script and nonpreferred brands are around $25-45/script. Please give me a normal example (one that occurs quite frequently) of a family earning $75,000 whose employer(s) do not offer them health insurance. Oh by the way, I work in the healthcare industry, and deal with managed care on an everyday basis. The only families I ever encounter who can’t afford/need health insurance are the ones who qualify for Medicaid, but the reason a lot of them aren’t getting the care they need is because Medicaids bills aren’t being paid. The Gov.’s “Kids Healthcare” is just a way for the state to give “very very basic” healthcare to kids by circumventing their payments to Medicaid. It’s cheaper for him to do that than actually pay his debt to Medicaid, which actually provides better healthcare to eligible families. - HANKSTER - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 3:10 pm: Anon- Of those earing over $75,000 a year, 28% lost their health insruance either as a result of companies not providing it anymore because it is too expensive or they are not able to afford premiums, which have gone up 78% since 2000 alone. I dont know who you are meeting, but you seem to be meeting the lucky ones, and missing the millions of people that are no longer able to afford healthcare. Kaiser says a million working people lost their health insurance last year alone. And you are right, All Kids does not give full enough medical coverage. - Anon - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 3:47 pm: To: Anon - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 2:49 pm If you “work in the healthcare industry” you are pretty ignorant - there are hundreds of thousands of uninsured in Illinois who are over the poverty level and NOT illegals. Something like 10% of the people making more than $75K are without health insurance. Go look at the Gilead study or UIC study. About 46% of the uninsured are non-Hispanic whites. About 500,000 of them are downstate. 40% of uninsured who work do NOT have access to insurance through employer. 61% of the uninsured live in a family with at least one adult working. Don’t let your prejudices blind you to the data. - Buck Flagojevich - Friday, Aug 18, 06 @ 5:17 pm: Hank & anon, FYI. I used my situation as an example. Wife and one kid in college. Two more kids at home, mortgage, food, etc. Of course I had to give up the new SUV every year, and the big screen TV and eating out. And I carry my own health insurance. Maybe Blago should start an AllEveryday Budget and Math program to help people manage their money. - Anon - Saturday, Aug 19, 06 @ 11:10 am: The Medi-Scare ads Blago will now be able to roll out signal this is the offical end of Topinka’s chances. Seasoned citizens vote. And everyone should be truly scared by the prospect of Topinka as Gov. She may be the Treasurer, but she’s unable to speak intelligently on the budget, just like she can’t on most any other issue. - NoGiftsPlease - Sunday, Aug 20, 06 @ 8:44 pm: I think the block grant idea will fit right in with our other state financing ideas. The point of the block grant is to lure states into reducing the growth in medicaid spending by giving them a fixed amount of money to spend instead of a promise to pay the federal share of whatever is spent. The beauty is that the state is seduced by getting more cash in the beginning years (while the governor is in office) with a declining level of growth later (when it is another governor’s problem). Maybe we’ll even get more than we need at first? I don’t know. If the state didn’t manage to stay within the grant amount in later years, where does the money come from? From the state budget, I guess. Don’t forget, this is the Federal government attempt to reduce growth in medicaid costs, not an attempt to give us better insurance. We also have a growing total population and a growing aged and infirm population. The number of people who need medicaid will continue to increase and health care costs show no sign of slowing down. - schroedk - Monday, Aug 21, 06 @ 12:48 pm: NoGiftsPlease, “the number of people who need medicaid will continue to increase and health care costs show no sign of slowing down.” Did you know that Illinois Medicaid has not increased the amount of reimbursement to medical providers since 1992 or 1995 (can’t remember off the top of my head, but look it up if you don’t believe me). So while health care costs have indeed gone up in that time (exponentially), the providers of the health care have not only not received the revenue stream to pay these costs, but they’ve been forced over the last 4+ years to accept these low payments later and later and later… Say what you will about JBT’s health plan. I don’t know if it will work or not. Block grants most likely aren’t going to be a fix-all, just like most things aren’t in and of themselves. The entire system requires fixing, but my money is on total collapse before that occurs, given the political climate both on a state and federal level. But people better start admitting that the system as it is now in this state is on the brink of total collapse and something needs to be done. How will the delivery of medical services improve if nursing homes and pharmacies and clinics shut down? This is a reality, whether people believe it or not. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.