* The Pantagraph…
PBMs are the middlemen between health insurance companies, drug manufacturers and pharmacies. Originally, they were meant to help manage prescription drug benefits for health plans, employers and government programs such as medicaid.
Today, Many pharmacists and other members of the pharmaceutical industry argue PBMs are focused more on profit than patient care, steering patients toward their own vertically integrated pharmacies – like CVS Caremark directing patients toward CVS or OptumRx toward United Health-affiliated providers. [….]
Gov. Pritzker will soon introduce his prescription drug affordability act that plans to regulate PBM practices and reduce drug costs for Illinois patients. […]
SB2385 filed by Sen. David Koehler, D-Peoria, would curb PBM abuses by stopping steering, mandating fair reimbursement, mandating fair reimbursement, and requiring PBMs to submit annual pricing reports. The bill is currently assigned to the Senate Executive Committee but has yet to be heard.
* WCIA…
Illinois restaurants and other businesses may have to say goodbye to styrofoam cups.
Last week, the fight against plastic waste moved forward in the Senate committee, which aims to ban Styrofoam and single-use bags. […]
The Coalition for Plastic Reduction joined other advocates to support a bill filed by Sen. Laura Fine (D-Glenview). The bill passed the Senate committee and aims to ban manufacturing companies from making and selling containers made with polystyrene foam in the state starting in 2030. These products include Styrofoam to-go boxes, cups, and plates. […]
The bill now goes to the Senate floor for a full vote. If passed, companies will have five years to transition to an alternative product before the deadline. However, they can still make Styrofoam containers to be exported outside of Illinois. Any first-time violation will receive a warning, followed by a fine.
* WAND…
The Illinois House can pass a bill next month to allow certified nurse midwives to help address the state’s maternal healthcare deserts.
Home birth services could be provided by certified midwives if they have a written collaborative agreement with local doctors or other healthcare providers. […]
House Bill 2688 passed unanimously out of the House Healthcare Licenses Committee and now moves to the House floor.
Representatives Adam Niemerg (R-Teutopolis), Chris Miller (R-Hindsboro), and Brad Halbrook (R-Shelbyville) are all co-sponsors of the legislation.
* Center Square…
State Sen. Celina Villanueva, D-Chicago, filed Senate Bill 1618, which would create a distillery shipper’s license, a class 3 craft distiller license and a spirits showcase permit. […]
According to the Illinois Craft Distillers Association, while 47 states allow for the direct shipment of wine from winemakers to consumers, only 11 states allow distillers to ship their products directly to consumers. Illinois is not among the 11. […]
Illinois Retail Merchants Association Vice President Alec Laird spoke in opposition to the direct-to-consumer part of the bill.
“So there is a disadvantage for local retailers. Distillers selling directly-to-consumers undercut retail prices, making it difficult for local stores to compete,” Laird said.
* Insurance Business Mag…
Illinois lawmakers have launched a formal effort to address a quietly building crisis that advocates say could soon overwhelm the state’s already-strained foster care system. At the heart of the issue: the disappearance of liability insurance for the private agencies that care for the vast majority of the state’s foster children.
A new resolution, House Joint Resolution 24, establishes the Child Welfare Agency Liability Task Force, charged with developing a permanent solution to the liability insurance shortfall that has shaken the foundations of Illinois’ child welfare system. The urgency is clear: without a fix, hundreds - perhaps thousands - of foster youth may be displaced as agencies lose the insurance coverage required to operate.
The stakes are high. Nearly 70% of Illinois’ more than 18,000 foster children are cared for by community-based, not-for-profit agencies operating under state contract. These organizations must maintain liability insurance to continue serving children. Yet, the market for such insurance has all but evaporated. Two remaining insurers plan to stop writing new policies in 2025 and are only selectively renewing existing ones—often at staggering rate increases and with severely diminished coverage. […]
Two bills introduced earlier this year - House Bill 3138 and Senate Bill 1696 - attempted a short-term fix by offering two-year civil liability immunity to foster care agencies and their employees, unless their actions were found to be “willful and wanton.” But the proposals have stalled under pressure from the politically powerful Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, which argues such immunity would deny justice to abused children.
* WAND…
A bill to expand what constitutes stalking passed the House Judicial Civil committee unanimously on Wednesday.
The plan would make it easier to charge a person with a Stalking No Contact Order when the victim feels under “emotional distress.”
Under the proposed policy, victims can seek legal relief if they receive multiple phone calls from the stalker after they’ve been told to stop, they’re repeatedly appearing at the victim’s workplace or outside their home, or they’re following the victim in a public place among others.
State Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz (D-Glenview) said a lot of the time, due to the language of current stalking laws, some stalkers can leave charge free.
* Rep. Harry Benton…
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — State Rep. Harry Benton, D-Plainfield, is working to make childcare more accessible and affordable by advancing a pair of bills bringing more early childhood educators into the classroom and improving access to care for military families. […]
Benton advanced the following legislation out of House committees:
- House Bill 3268: Helps address the high costs of childcare by allowing daycares to hire teachers according to a tiered system, while they work to get their qualifications–similar to an apprenticeship program. This will help address the teacher shortage and prevent the closures of so many childcare facilities across the state.
- House Bill 3444: Specifically designed to help military families with the cost of childcare by making daycares located on military bases exempt from DCFS regulation if they are certified by the U.S. Department of Defense and a qualified national accrediting agency.
* Chicago Editorial Board…
Illinois has certainly become famous for its vast number of government entities, with a total of 8,505 townships, counties, villages, water reclamation districts … you name it. The St. Louis Fed points out that Illinois has more than 1.5 times as many units of government as California, despite having less than a third as many residents. All of this to say, the vast quantity of government in Illinois is an outlier. […]
We concede that some townships provide valuable services no other governmental body offers, particularly in rural areas of the state.
It’s a different story in densely populated areas, where townships overlap with counties and villages. Is such a tangle of government truly necessary? […]
Lawmakers this session filed a handful of bills in Springfield to further the cause. One would allow election authorities to merge contiguous townships into a single election precinct if certain conditions are met. Another measure would dissolve all townships with fewer than 5,000 residents, consolidating them with either an adjacent township or the county governing their geographic area. […]
Unfortunately, the movement appears to have stalled in Springfield. Despite the governor’s backing, Senate and House committees moved none of the bills aiming to shrink Illinois’ number of townships before the legislature’s deadline for committee action.
* WAND…
A bill heading to the Illinois House floor could require all assisted living and shared homes to have an AED on-site.
The plan also calls for all healthcare employees at the facility to be trained on how to use defibrillators in emergencies.
Sponsors told the House Human Services Committee Wednesday that 292 nursing homes already have AEDs. However, that number only makes up 54% of the facilities across the state. […]
House Bill 1287 passed unanimously out of the House Human Services Committee and now heads to the House floor.
- Sir Reel - Thursday, Mar 27, 25 @ 9:06 am:
Once again politicians hold together and squash attempts to reduce the number of units of government in Illinois. Sweet gigs for the staff members, board members, etc of the mosquitoe abatement districts, sewage treatment districts, etc.
- TheInvisibleMan - Thursday, Mar 27, 25 @ 9:08 am:
” with a total of 8,505 townships, counties, villages, water reclamation districts … you name it.”
Okay, I’ll name it.
One of the entities considered a government entity in Illinois, are police and fire pension boards in each and every tiny town.
This is one of the many reasons I do not trust the messaging being used to focus exclusively on townships. It’s a red herring argument.
- Leatherneck - Thursday, Mar 27, 25 @ 9:13 am:
=Sweet gigs for the staff members, board members, etc of the mosquitoe abatement districts, sewage treatment districts, etc.=
Plus the trustees, leaders, and employees of Capital Township, as well as the villages of Leland Grove, Jerome, Grandview, and Southern View.
- Demoralized - Thursday, Mar 27, 25 @ 9:22 am:
==A bill heading to the Illinois House floor could require all assisted living and shared homes to have an AED on-site.==
I can’t believe we need a bill like this. Why in the world would these places not have AED’s?
- Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Thursday, Mar 27, 25 @ 9:31 am:
Blame politicians all you want for the number of units of government. Much like attempts to close under-utilized SOS offices or rural Post Offices that aren’t open five days a week, Americans are all in on less government until it’s their rice bowl being broken.
- Leatherneck - Thursday, Mar 27, 25 @ 10:28 am:
If Capital Township gets abolished via legislation, and/or if Springfield is allowed to absorb the “doughnut holes” within the city (including Leland Grove and Co.), I would also like to see the bill further amended to finally “settle” the boundary question between Springfield and Chatham.
Chatham either annexes or gets priority to annex anything south of Lake Springfield and Lick Creek, and west of 55. Including Piper Glen, Lake Knolls subdivision, Lake Springfield Marina, most of Capitol Precinct 22, and the area along Palm Road that Frito Lay is trying to get a distribution center built. All to be annexed by Chatham like it was supposed to be and many people probably think is part of the Village to begin with.
Springfield’s area of influence and city limits stays north and west of Lake Springfield. But in exchange they finally get control of Leland Grove and the other donut holes within the city.
- Candy Dogood - Thursday, Mar 27, 25 @ 10:30 am:
===Advanced practice registered nurses certified as midwives would also have the ability to provide out of hospital births if they have been granted clinical privileges from a birth center===
This is a rough band aid and I worry this will cause rural hospital systems to simply not have enough physicians available to handle obstetrics and lead to a rise in the risk of maternal mortality when there are complications from birth.
- redrepublican65 - Thursday, Mar 27, 25 @ 10:40 am:
I’ll say it again: Pritzker’s plan dissolves townships yet gives their tax stream to the COUNTY in perpetuity.
Call me silly, but if I vote to dissolve an unnecessary, duplicative taxing body, I expect MY TAX BILL TO GO DOWN.
- RNUG - Thursday, Mar 27, 25 @ 10:44 am:
== the movement appears to have stalled … ==
And understandably so. Local positions, often townships, are where aspiring politicians start out … that is the future of whichever political party.
- Matty - Thursday, Mar 27, 25 @ 10:47 am:
“So there is a disadvantage for local retailers. Distillers selling directly-to-consumers undercut retail prices, making it difficult for local stores to compete,” Laird said.
Buying directly from a distiller will cost you more 90% of the time over buying from a retailer. This is a false flag and will not impact grocery and liquor stores in any way.
- @misterjayem - Thursday, Mar 27, 25 @ 11:12 am:
If an individual customer buys enough liquor to qualify for the volume discount pricing available to retailers, that individual should seek treatment immediately.
– MrJM
- 62629 - Thursday, Mar 27, 25 @ 11:17 am:
@Leatherneck
Except Springfield has already annexed the property where the Frito Lay distribution center is set to go and a good portion of the properties in Lake Knolls have also already been annexed into Springfield. If Chatham wanted to annex those properties, they waited too long. And I doubt that Leland Grove and the other Villages within Springfield are going to go along with being absorbed by Springfield.
- JS Mill - Thursday, Mar 27, 25 @ 11:19 am:
= I can’t believe we need a bill like this. Why in the world would these places not have AED’s?=
Agreed. The reason is money. At least out here in rural Illinois the staffing is minimal and the majority are minimum wage workers. Many of these facilities have worked hard to pay the minimum in property taxes while stuffing local municipalities for services. Unfortunately it is all about the money.
- H-W - Thursday, Mar 27, 25 @ 11:30 am:
Re: Chicago Tribune Editorial on County Governance
I like that the editorial acknowledges that in rural areas, consolidation may not be efficient, nor practical. As a rural resident, I am not convinced that giving Macomb control over all county funding would serve rural residents equally, much less better. We already see this in the context of quality of schooling, quality of life, quality of services, etc. Macomb is like Eden to those who live in the rest of the county. The rural communities are deprived of resources, but giving control over those resources to Macomb will not help the most farmers moving grains in the winter, nor improve the rural schools that already exist here.
At the same time, I do agree in general with the editorial board that in suburban and urban areas, where economies of scale do exist, there may in fact be a lot of unnecessary bureaucracy, duplicity and potential waste. But I am no expert on suburban and urban matters, having left suburbia 20+ years ago. I only know consolidations in the rural areas will lead to further decline, rather than growth.
- Thomas Paine - Thursday, Mar 27, 25 @ 11:31 am:
=== I expect MY TAX BILL TO GO DOWN. ===
There’s the rub, isn’t it?
If we eliminated Township government and did not transfer the revenue to counties, every County in Illinois would be opposed to this bill, I imagine.
- H-W - Thursday, Mar 27, 25 @ 11:37 am:
On Plastics and Styrofoam
I hope this bill is successful. It allows five years for alternatives to arrive. While at the individual level, most folks have minimal impact on the environment, collectively, 12.7 million Illinoisans and our guests can positively impact the environment. We simply need to start now, reducing our uses of oil-based products.
- Anyone Remember - Thursday, Mar 27, 25 @ 11:56 am:
===This is one of the many reasons I do not trust the messaging being used to focus exclusively on townships.===
8,505
I’d never heard that number before (don’t have access to Trib webpage). The number I’d previously heard was approximately 6,900. Regardless, townships in urban areas need to go.
- Friendly Bob Adams - Thursday, Mar 27, 25 @ 12:02 pm:
The townships in DuPage County don’t do very much.
- RNUG - Thursday, Mar 27, 25 @ 12:11 pm:
== finally get control of Leland Grove … ==
Given the number of Springfield area political power brokers in Leland Grove, that will never happen.
- RNUG - Thursday, Mar 27, 25 @ 12:11 pm:
PBM’s … your classic case of follow the money
- H-W - Thursday, Mar 27, 25 @ 12:20 pm:
I am not originally from Illinois, so I am seeking information from those who have lived here since the 1960s and 1970s.
As a sociologists with some expertise in educational administration (doctoral background), I was of the impression that the proliferation of urban and suburban townships occurred in the early to mid-1970s, after the Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg decision that compelled busing to integrate school districts. I know in the South, where school districts were founded and funded at the county level, busing became to only reasonable choice (although some magnet schools were created in a few urban areas). In the South, the busing decision led to the rise of private “academies” for people who refused to allow their children to attend integrated schools.
In the Northeast and presumably the Midwest, I was told that many school districts simply redrew their township boundaries to avoid integration.
For those in the know, is there a relationship between the busing decision and the proliferation of school districts within metropolitan areas in Illinois, particularly in Chicagoland?
- Leatherneck - Thursday, Mar 27, 25 @ 12:31 pm:
=8,505
I’d never heard that number before (don’t have access to Trib webpage). The number I’d previously heard was approximately 6,900.=
I wonder if single-school districts (e.g., K-8 or HS-only) instead of unit school districts is contributing to that 8500 number.
- RNUG - Thursday, Mar 27, 25 @ 12:32 pm:
== is there a relationship between the busing decision and the proliferation of school districts … ==
The proliferation of Illinois’ various units of non-state government, school and otherwise, probably has as much to do with the Illinois rules for taxing and bond issuing authority as it does anything else.
Not saying that segregation / busing might have had some influence, but the myriad government entities were well entrenched long before that.
Plus there was already a well established church school system, primarily Catholic dating way back. You might be able to tie some of the Lutheran school growth back to the 1960’s.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Mar 27, 25 @ 12:35 pm:
== I expect MY TAX BILL TO GO DOWN.==
Lol. The services are still being provided. You don’t have a very good grasp on things.
- d - Thursday, Mar 27, 25 @ 12:36 pm:
sorry. That was me above.
- Jack in Chatham - Thursday, Mar 27, 25 @ 12:39 pm:
H-W: It has to do with Constitutional limits on debt issuances. If your Village or Town wants a Library or Fire Department and you need to borrow money and issue municipal bonds to fund the construction you create a Library or Fire Fighting District. It is a financing thing.
- Dupage - Thursday, Mar 27, 25 @ 1:25 pm:
Midwives are OK as long as nothing goes wrong. In an emergency situation, they cannot do much except call 911. In cases where a baby is strangling from the umbilical cord, they need an emergency C-section, something where delay can mean lifetime disability or death of the baby.
- Thomas Paine - Thursday, Mar 27, 25 @ 2:17 pm:
@d/Anonymous -
I think you are maybe the one not grasping the logic.
If we are eliminating township government because county government can deliver services more efficiently, then taxes should be expected to go down.
- anon2 - Thursday, Mar 27, 25 @ 3:01 pm:
There are 1,428 townships in IL.
- Demoralized - Thursday, Mar 27, 25 @ 3:26 pm:
==The reason is money.==
With respect, you can get one for a couple thousand dollars. If you are operating one of those facilities and you can’t afford a couple thousand dollars for an AED device then you need to take a good hard look at whether you should be operating at all.
- redrepublican65 - Thursday, Mar 27, 25 @ 5:10 pm:
===Hey Anonymous:
What “services?” Do you know the definition of the terms “unnecessary” and “duplicative,” or not?
- @misterjayem - Thursday, Mar 27, 25 @ 6:16 pm:
“Do you know the definition of the terms ‘unnecessary’ and ‘duplicative,’ or not?”
Can you identify these “unnecessary” and “duplicative” services, or not?
Because you haven’t yet.
– MrJM
- froganon - Thursday, Mar 27, 25 @ 6:30 pm:
Township’s don’t duplicate County services in my Township. Our Township has 33 miles of roads to be plowed and maintained. If the county takes responsibility for those miles, they need plows, salt and personal and a garage to operate from. Neither the county, the villages nor anyone else is providing the mental health services nor the paratransit services our township provides. Make every school district K-12, consolidate Township Road Districts with Townships and reduce the number of Township governments by 50%, consolidate the fire and police pension boards. These are good places to start. The best starting point is an inventory of services that residents no longer want to pay for or want to consolidate.