…Adding… Capitol News Illinois…

Gov. JB Pritzker plans to take on the state’s health insurance industry this year by calling for legislation to curb many of the standard practices they use to hold down costs and boost profits.

He plans to outline those reforms in his State of the State and budget address Wednesday, according to an advance excerpt of his speech, kicking off a process that will eventually require approval from lawmakers.

Pritzker’s “Healthcare Consumer Access and Protection Act” will include a package of proposals aimed at controlling strategies that insurers use to reduce the amount of health care patients receive.

It also includes new requirements for insurers to offer enough in-network doctors to meet consumers’ needs, as well as state regulatory control over rate increases in the large group insurance plans similar to regulations lawmakers approved last year for small group policies.

…Adding… Pantagraph…

Gov. J.B. Pritzker will call for the permanent repeal of the state’s 1% tax on groceries in his fiscal year 2025 budget proposal to be delivered Wednesday afternoon.

Repealing the tax, which is collected by the state and distributed to local governments, would save state taxpayers collectively about $350 million in the fiscal year that begins July 1, the governor’s office estimates.

* WTTW…

If Illinois continues spending next fiscal year as it has been this year, the state will face an $891 million deficit. […]

The $891 million fiscal year 2025 deficit figure, which was projected in that November report by Pritzker’s own Governor’s Office of Management and Budget (GOMB), assumes a $350 million increase in the state’s main K-12 education funding formula, an annualized bump in cost for Medicaid enhancements and “moderate growth rates in the various categories of state spending.”

But it does not include what the report describes as “significant changes to base programs” which could bring savings, or could come with a cost. […]

Those factors led GOMB to revise up its revenue projections to $52 billion for the fiscal year, which runs through June.

Even after accounting for an extra $1 billion in revenues, pressures “that will offset the revenue gains including increased case load pressures at Department on Aging and DHS (Department of Human Services)” and “potential spending pressures related to asylum seekers at DHS,” GOMB said the state is set to end this 2024 fiscal year with a $422 million surplus – the opposite of the in-the-red situation lawmakers are staring down as they begin the budgeting process anew.

* Sun-Times…

Following Cook County’s lead, Gov. J.B. Pritzker will propose investing $10 million of federal funds in his budget to erase more than $1 billion in medical debt for Illinois residents. […]

Pritzker will include the $10 million ask in his budget proposal for the next fiscal year — and the investment would mark the first year in a multi-year plan, the governor said in an interview with the Sun-Times on Tuesday.

“This first tranche of this for FY [fiscal year] 25 will remove the medical debt for 364,000 people. That’s just the first year of a multi-year plan and it’s a $1 billion of the $3 billion that remains outside of Cook County. So the first year — again $1 billion, 364,000 people will have this cloud removed.” […]

Of the nearly two million Illinois residents with medical debt in collection, 1.75 million are low-income, according to the governor’s office. The total amount of medical debt that can be acquired from those 1.75 million low-income residents is $4 billion — with 25% in Cook County.

* WBEZ…

Pritzker wants to allocate more than $20 million in his proposed state budget to reduce health disparities and help prevent more Black women from dying before, during and after childbirth. He’s set to give his budget address on Wednesday, kicking off a round of negotiations for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

The money for birth equity initiatives would help cover what can be expensive barriers for community-based providers, such as licensing fees for midwives who deliver babies or capital expenses to open birth centers.

Having enough staff has been another barrier for birth centers to stay open. In birth centers, patients can deliver their babies with a midwife on a big bed in a homelike atmosphere rather than in a hospital. […]

A state report last fall documented that while deaths among pregnant women are rare, they have increased across Illinois — and the majority of them were possibly preventable. More than half of the pregnancy-related deaths happened more than 60 days after the women gave birth.

* Crain’s…

The governor’s office wants $500 million for quantum, the next generation in computing technology that’s only now moving from theory to practical application. About $300 million of the funding would go toward building a campus that would include a cryogenics facility — some early quantum computers operate at extremely cold temperatures. […]

It’s a bold ask at a time when the state faces what could be its most challenging budget in several years, with a potential deficit as spending needs grow in human services, health care, pensions and government health insurance, as well as the migrant crisis.

But Pritzker can point to wins on the EV front with Stellantis and battery maker Gotion. And his early $200 million investment in quantum technology efforts at the University of Chicago and University of Illinois have paid off with large federal grants and commitments by private companies, such as Google and IBM.

“We have heard from companies who have been in discussions with the state of Illinois about a location in North America and have said to us: ‘If we want to be co-located somewhere, you would be attractive for all of your existing tech assets. How can you help us source the location?’ ” Richards says. “It’s about building out a campus and a cryogenics facility.”

She declined to say where the facility would be built.

* Capitol News Illinois…

Republicans in the Illinois Senate indicated Tuesday that their sticking point for budget negotiations this year will be the same as it was last year – state spending on programs for noncitizens and recent arrivals from the country’s southern border.

In what’s been a rarity over the past five years, Senate Republicans were in on budget negotiations with their Democratic counterparts last year until the legislative session neared its end. But when the final budget bill materialized in the waning days of May, no Republican supported it. […]

Gov. JB Pritzker on Wednesday is set to lay out his vision for the upcoming fiscal year 2025, which begins July 1. Because Democrats hold supermajorities in both the House and Senate, Republican votes aren’t necessarily needed to pass a spending plan.

Still, Curran said he’d like to engage with Democrats to the same extent his caucus did during his first year as its leader.

* More…

* ABC Chicago | Gov. JB Pritzker to deliver State of the State address to discuss budget, asylum seeker funding: Earlier this month, Pritzker and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle promised more money to help asylum seekers sent to Chicago from Texas. Both pledged a combined $250 million in funding for shelter, wraparound services and healthcare.

* Center Square | Migrant funding top of mind ahead of Pritzker’s budget address: Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza’s office Tuesday announced a portal to track taxpayer spending on the crisis. Since November, the tracker shows the state’s taxpayers have spent more than $31.1 million. The governor’s office said last week taxpayers have covered $478 million since the start of the crisis in 2022. He announced the state will commit to $182 million for the issue in the coming budget.

* KFVS | Gov. Pritzker to deliver State of the State, budget address Wed: In the lead up to the address, Republicans are calling for Gov. Pritzker and Democratic lawmakers to focus on the people of Illinois. Senate GOP Leader John Curran says Democrats need to stop prioritizing migrant spending.

* WGEM | State Senate Republicans call on Gov. Pritzker to ‘prioritize Illinois citizens’ in upcoming budget: Curran said Pritzker should course correct. “Instead of more free health care for noncitizens, we want to see efforts to lower costs for Illinois citizens. Instead of non-citizen programs, we want to see efforts to make Illinois more affordable for working families, seniors and our most vulnerable populations,” Curran said.