* Jim Reed of the Illinois Education Association sitting next to Kristina Rasmussen of the Illinois Policy Institute at today’s State of the State Address…
And, yes, I know the governor has an annoying affectation of dropping some of his g’s (not all, just some, which is why it’s annoying), but let’s please stick to substance. Thanks.
State Sen. Andy Manar on Tuesday called for a $500 million increase in education funding as part of his plan to revamp Illinois’ school funding formula.
The Bunker Hill Democrat filed Senate Bill 1 in mid-January, which he plans to use to overhaul how the state funds its schools. He said at a Statehouse news conference he was echoing the State Board of Education’s recent request for $729 million more than in the current budget. […]
“I don’t think there’s too many people in the building – Democrat or Republican – that think the way we do things today is worth preserving,” he said. “So that brings about the question of how we’re going to change it and how we’re going to get there.” […]
Gov. Bruce Rauner is expected to propose massive cuts during his Feb. 18 budget address to battle a potential $9 billion deficit. Manar said he wouldn’t take any options off of the table on how to find the money – including cuts to other programs such as Medicaid – but where the money comes from would ultimately be part of the budget discussions.
A measles outbreak spreading across the country is fueling the debate over vaccinations and causing alarm among parents, pediatricians and public health officials in the Chicago area. Doctors are fielding calls from anxious parents — some who are wondering if their vaccinated children are safe, others who are re-examining their decision not to immunize.
“We’ve been getting phone call after phone call,” said Dr. Anita Chandra-Puri, a pediatrician, who estimates that inquiries into her Lincoln Park office regarding vaccines have gone from zero a month ago to about 10 per day. “Parents are asking everything — from whether or not their kids have been immunized to questioning whether it’s safe for them to travel.”
Dr. Robert Minkus has seen a spike too. The Skokie pediatrician said he has received “dozens and dozens” of calls during the last two weeks from parents who had declined or deferred immunizations and have now had a change of heart. “It was different when measles was something abstract,” he said. “But they’re saying, ‘I want it now.’”
Last week, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported that a suburban Cook County resident had a confirmed case of measles — the first this year. Before that, the state recorded only a handful of cases over the years, with no cases at all in some years over the past two decades. There were 32 cases reported statewide in 2008; 59 in 1994; and 1,356 in 1990 — when there was a surge nationwide.
a) The provisions of this Part shall not apply if:
1) The parent or legal guardian of the child objects to the requirements of this Part on the grounds that the administration of immunizing agents conflicts with his or her religious tenets or practices, or
2) A physician licensed to practice medicine in all its branches, an advanced practice nurse or a physician assistant states in writing that the physical condition of the child is such that the administration of one or more of the required immunizing agents is medically contraindicated.
b) If a religious objection is made, a written and signed statement from the parent or legal guardian detailing the objection shall be presented to the child care facility or local school authority. The religious objection statement shall be considered valid if:
1) The parent or legal guardian of a child entering a child care facility objects to the immunization or immunizations on the grounds that they conflict with the tenets and practices of a recognized church or religious organization of which the parent is an adherent or member; or
2) The objection by the parent or legal guardian of a child entering school (including programs below the kindergarten level) sets forth the specific religious belief that conflicts with the immunizations. The religious objection may be personal and need not be directed by the tenets of an established religious organization.
c) It is not the intent of this Part that any child whose parents comply with the intent of the Act should be excluded from a child care facility or school. A child or student shall be considered to be in compliance with the law if there is evidence of the intent to comply. Evidence may be a signed statement from a health care provider that he or she has begun, or will begin, the necessary immunization procedures, or the parent’s or legal guardian’s written consent for the child’s participation in a school or other community immunization program.
* As the Daily Herald reported in 2013, that religious exemption is pretty darned broad…
Illinois has two types of exemptions allowing unvaccinated kids to stay in school: One calls for a doctor’s note if, for example, a child is allergic to a certain vaccine. Or, a parent can file a religious objection to the immunizations.
That second method has opened a gateway to forego the shots that more and more parents, such as Elgin’s Ashley Focht, are choosing to walk through. She has skipped immunizing her son Gavin, despite not having any actual religious beliefs against vaccines. […]
Juanita Gryfinski is one of the many school nurses who can provide a link to that help. She was recently a nominee for the Illinois Association of School Nurses Nurse Administrator of the Year Award for her work in St. Charles Unit District 303 schools. She reads every religious exemption letter in her district.
“The letter just has to state a religious belief that conflicts with our immunization policy,” Gryfinski said. “But they don’t have to attach it with a specific religious tenet or church. Some people are very specific and talk about fetal material used in a vaccine. Some just briefly mention ‘a creator.’ But as soon as it says religious belief it gets very unlikely that I would reject a request because I can’t read somebody’s heart. What I’m looking for is any indication that they are trying to avoid something else.”
* The All Natural Mom blog had a post about Illinois’ exemptions a couple of years ago…
In Illinois, you have to use the word “spiritual” or “personal religious beliefs” at least three times in your letter. […]
When submitting your religious exemption letter, here are a few tips. Get the school physical form that the school gives you (if they need a physical that year). Have the doctor fill out everything else. If you refuse vaccines, they just write over the vaccine section “Refused.” Don’t be scared by the nurses in your doctor’s office either. They are usually totally unaware of the laws because I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked by the nurses, “How will your kids go to school?” I was told my kids would not be allowed to attend school without their vaccines. Wrong. That’s what the pharmaceutical companies want you to think. […]
In the last 10 years, I’ve never once been asked to keep my kids at home. Why? Because there has never been an outbreak of one of these diseases. If there were, I’m sure we would have gotten a letter home to the class about it. We get letters every time someone has strep. I also believe if there were an outbreak, some nurses may not remember which kids were the ones who were not vaccinated. I’m thinking they are just required to tell us that.
If questioned by a school administrator who does not know the law, they may question your religious belief. This is illegal and tell them so. They cannot question your personal religious belief.
As parents, based on our personal religious beliefs, we object to the following vaccinations, including but not limited to, Dtap/DPT, HepB, Hib, Tetanus (TB), MMR, Polio, and Varicella (Chicken Pox), for our child, ___________.
Our child’s body is the temple of God. Our family’s personal religious beliefs prohibit the injection of foreign substances into our bodies. To inject into our child any substance which would alter the state into which he was born would be to criticize our Lord and question His divine omnipotence. Our faith will not allow us to question our Lord and God, nor to challenge His divine power.
I Corithians 6: 19-20, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? …Therefore honor God with your body.”
II Corinthians 7:1, “…let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.
Our objection is based on our lifelong, deeply-held spiritual beliefs based on scripture.
The vaccination of our child violates laws put forth within us by a higher force at the time of conception.
Our personal religious beliefs include our obedience to God’s law, the Holy Bible, and we believe that we are responsible before God for the life and safety of our child, created by God.
* Speaker Madigan has announced that he’ll appear on Public Television’s Illinois Lawmakers program after today’s State of the State address. He’s also planning a 1:30 press conference to react to the governor’s address. You can watch the address and the interview on BlueRoomStream.com’s live feed here and here. Democratic legislative react will be here. GOP react will be here. I’ll be on Illinois Lawmakers’ pre-game and post-game shows.
More than 30 Chicago area social service agencies discovered an unwelcome surprise in their email inboxes late last Thursday afternoon.
A letter from the Illinois Department of Human Services tersely informed them to “cease any and all operations” funded by state grants they were awarded in the closing weeks of Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration.
The contract awards, which were announced Dec. 17 and took effect Jan. 1, were intended to provide job training, after school and other “youth development” programs.
Some $8 million total was involved, a drop in the bucket compared with the $1.5 billion budget deficit that Gov. Bruce Rauner says he inherited from Quinn upon his Jan. 12 inauguration.
“He has cut $4.5 million in youth employment,” said Father Michael Pfleger of the St. Sabina Parish. “He has cut $3.5 million in after school care. Make it clear, this money he can say the state didn’t have, this money was allocated. Jobs began, contracts were signed as of January 1.”
One of those contracts was with the Humboldt Park-based Youth Connections, which was expecting $900,000 to fund 250 jobs.
“I was sad. I was crushed,” said Founder of Fellowship Connections Lynette Santiago. “In this economy and in this community we serve, to have to tell people that they are no longer employed… I don’t know.”
Pfleger said the cuts are “inappropriate” at the time and come at a time when the governor is raising the salaries of his own staff.
“In order to keep the income tax low, he’s going to have to make spending cuts in the state budget,” said Diana Rickert of the Illinois Policy Institute, a free market think thank that is a Rauner beneficiary.
Rickert expects the governor to cut selected social programs as well as state worker jobs and salaries.
“Everything is fair game for cuts this year,” Rickert says. “The reason why is government has been over spending for many, many years.”
Communities United, formerly known as the Albany Park Neighborhood Council, had planned to use its $276,000 grant mainly to operate its popular Bikes N’ Roses program, which I have written about previously.
The group employs neighborhood youth after school and during the summer to work in its bike repair shop, where they are trained not only to completely overhaul a bicycle but also to work with the public, to come to work on time and to meet deadlines.
Oscar Rivera Jr., the program director, had already hired 50 kids and was planning to open a second shop in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood. Some had quit other jobs to take this one, he said.
A watchdog group Tuesday asked the Office of Congressional Ethics to examine whether Rep. Aaron Schock of Illinois acted improperly by accepting free services from an interior designer who redid his offices with a “Downton Abbey” motif.
The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington asked for the probe in a letter from Anne Weismann, its interim executive director and chief counsel.
The request was prompted by a story in Tuesday’s Washington Post about the fresh decor in the Republican lawmaker’s Rayburn Building office. […]
The paper quoted Schock’s office as saying Brahler offered her services for free, His congressional district includes Jacksonville, Ill., where Euro Trash is located.
In December 2009 he paid $7,400 to an Illinois design/build firm called KBL Design Center, and then another $21,000 to a hardwood floor company, a building contractor and company called Old World Granite and Marble that apparently makes high-end countertops. He then spent $6,600 on an Illinois painting contractor.
Two months later, Schock spent $79,061 on furniture purchases, including $5,123 from a company called Mulnix Industries that specializes in hardwood podiums.
Around the same time, Schock spent more than $4,000 with a fine-leather furniture company called Garrett Leather.
All of the expenditures came out of Schock’s taxpayer-funded office account, which lawmakers can use to buy office furniture and pay for renovations.
* Gov. Rauner’s team leaked some State of the State stuff to the Tribune…
The rookie Republican chief executive will suggest to lawmakers an overhaul of the parole system and higher spending on programs that help inmates find jobs and readjust to the community after they’ve served their time, according to an aide for Rauner with knowledge of the speech. Specifically, Rauner will talk about a program known as Adult Redeploy, which provides grants to counties to develop ways to keep nonviolent offenders out of state prisons.
Those efforts, coupled with the hiring of an unspecified number of correctional officers, are aimed at addressing what Rauner will call the “unsafe environment” for prisoners and guards alike because of the state’s high prison population. […]
The governor’s offensive on organized labor is likely to continue in Wednesday’s speech. He is expected to call on unions with state contracts to include more minorities in their apprenticeship programs, and require work crews on taxpayer-funded construction projects to “reflect the diversity in the surrounding area,” according to a Rauner aide. The move has the political benefit of tweaking unions while also appealing to minority voters.
Rauner also is expected to propose creating a program that would help minority-owned businesses get off the ground.
Watch for signs of influence from first lady Diana Rauner, who leads the Ounce of Prevention Fund, an early childhood education not-for-profit group.
She told The Associated Press last month that one of her primary roles as first lady will be to advocate for vulnerable children and families, and to help her husband understand the struggles social service agencies and families are facing.
Will the governor, who’s pledged to make Illinois both “competitive and compassionate,” touch on any of those topics?
…Adding…. Oops. They did give the AP one nugget that I somehow missed…
A Rauner administration official said Tuesday that the governor will reiterate his call to increase early childhood and K-12 education funding, despite Rauner’s warning for weeks that painful budget cuts may be coming in other areas.
Subscribers have known about that for at least a week.
Remember the unbelievable news that former Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon was reportedly considering a bid for Congress, despite her ties to failed former Governor Pat Quinn?
It turns out, after testing the waters for a few weeks, Simon is not anxious to jump into the race. Today, Roll Call reported that she has rebuffed Democratic recruitment efforts, saying she was “not actively pursuing it.” Simon even went a step further, comparing campaigning to childbirth and that “it’s not something to jump back into right away.”
Simon certainly does not sound like somebody who wants to run. Perhaps Sheila Simon has finally realized that being besties with politically-toxic Pat Quinn will make running for office again a bigger challenge than she ever realized. Then again, Simon must know that in Southern Illinois, being recruited by Nancy Pelosi is just as toxic as being Pat Quinn’s protégé.
NRCC Comment: “Southern Illinois families have had enough of Sheila Simon and Pat Quinn’s failed policies. Democrats will need to step up their recruiting because 12th district voters know better than to send a Pat Quinn protégé to Washington.” – NRCC Spokesman Zach Hunter
That’s really over the top. Apparently, some DC types can’t resist taking shots at people who aren’t even candidates and probably wouldn’t have ever been a candidate.
Tuesday, Feb 3, 2015 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
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Something terrible happened to me, but it could have been you or someone you love. Please protect open access to Illinois courts.
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West suburban lawmakers announced a package of bills Monday aimed at punishing the College of DuPage for giving President Robert Breuder a lucrative severance package and at preventing other taxing bodies from approving similar buyouts. […]
The legislative moves come nearly a week after College of DuPage trustees took an unusual revote to approve a $763,000 severance deal for Breuder, who will retire in March 2016 from the publicly funded community college in Glen Ellyn. The buyout agreement also promises to name the school’s homeland security education center after him.
More than 400 people — including several state lawmakers from the area — attended the revote meeting to denounce the deal, which some trustees now say was done to end Breuder’s current contract early. Breuder, whose total compensation last year was about $484,000, was under contract until 2019, according to an agreement that had been secretly changed by the trustees over the years.
On the severance issue, trustees also were under fire for possibly violating the state’s Open Meetings Act, which requires a public recital of the matter being considered, during an earlier vote.
* The House Republicans summed up the legislative proposals, most of which are still being drafted by LRB…
Representative Batinick is seeking legislation that will provide a recall mechanism for all non-home rule units of government. The legislation includes community college boards of trustees.
Representative Breen is seeking legislation that would cap the amount of allowable severance agreements passed by community college trustees. Breen is seeking to cap such agreements to the equivalent of one year’s salary plus benefits.
Representative Breen is [also] seeking legislation that would bar community colleges from expending state dollars from any state fund, property tax funds or student tuition dollars on severance agreements that exceed the equivalent of one year’s salary plus benefits.
A redraft of HB3289 (Ives, 98th) has been submitted to LRB with additional language pertaining to College of DuPage. Representative Ives has added a 14-day public posting requirement for contracts with salary in excess of $150,000.
HR 55 (Ives) - Directs the Auditor General to conduct a performance audit of the state moneys provided to College of DuPage for FY11 through FY14.
HB 303 - Representative McDermed has introduced legislation that includes severance and settlement agreements that use public funds in the Freedom of Information Act. The legislation is essentially what was introduced in response to the Metra severance scandal in 2013.
Representative Sandack is seeking legislation that will reduce the amount of state money available to community college boards should they take action similar to College of DuPage. If a community college uses state moneys for severance agreements, the community college will have the same amount deducted from the next disbursement by the Comptroller immediately following board action.
Representative Wehrli is seeking legislation to shorten all community college trustee terms to four years from six years. The language will provide that, in order for staggered terms to survive, trustees elected in 2017 will serve two year terms and then trustees elected in 2019 will henceforth serve four year terms. Trustees elected in 2015 will serve until 2021 but then trustees elected in 2021 will henceforth serve four year terms.
* The Question: Which of these proposals do you like? Which ones do you not like? Explain, please.
* Sen. Andy Manar is having a press conference today to unveil his revised school funding reform bill. Here’s the media handout…
School Funding Reform Act of 2015
The School Funding Reform Act of 2015 is a reintroduced version of last year’s Senate Bill 16, a proposal to replace Illinois’ dated General State Aid (GSA) formula with a new, need-based system.
Background
Illinois has the second most regressive public school funding system in the country: Districts with significant low-income populations in Illinois get less combined funding from state, local and federal sources than districts with more affluent students. Last year’s proposal passed the Senate and was designed to alleviate this disparity and increase transparency in the system.
The School Funding Reform Act is based on the findings of the bipartisan Education Funding Advisory Committee that was created to study this problem and recommend changes to a funding system that hadn’t been updated or reviewed since 1997.
SB 16 would have:
• Created a single, need-based funding formula (Primary State Aid); replacing GSA and an outdated grant-based system
• Prioritized state resources to help school districts and students who most need them
• Increased transparency by requiring individual schools to account for how they spend state funds, replacing the old district-by-district reports
• Included Chicago in the new, need-based formula—eliminating the Chicago Public Schools block grant
Updates
School Funding Reform Act of 2015 (SB 1) has evolved based on discussions with more than 400 local superintendents and statewide town halls involving parents and educators.
The new bill includes the following improvements to SB 16:
Regionalization: Considers regional differences when determining state aid for districts. The new legislation uses the National Center for Education Statistics’ Comparable Wage Index to measure variation in salaries and cost of living from district to district.
Low-income calculation: Calculates the low-income population of a district based on the number of students receiving services from the Illinois Department of Human Services (generally students below 200 percent of the poverty line). This replaces the number used under SB 16, which was based on the number of students receiving free and reduced lunch (generally students below 185 percent of the poverty line).
Adequacy study: Expedites a study that will analyze the adequate amount of funding for education and develop a base level funding for adequate student growth. The study will consider how student characteristics, tax rates and preschool expansion should be factored into the funding formula.
Adequacy grants: Provides additional funding for districts that are collecting taxes at or above state averages but are spending below a calculated adequacy target— the Education Funding Advisory Board’s adequacy recommendation weighted for each district. This would protect underfunded districts from losses under SB1.
ELL reporting: Requires school districts receiving state funding for English Language Learner (ELL) programs to report their revenues and costs related to bilingual education.
Special education flexibility: Ensures that districts with above average special education needs will be funded based on their number of special education students, rather than the statewide rate of 13.8 percent.
***Projections from the Illinois State Board of Education will be distributed when they become available. ***
Tuesday, Feb 3, 2015 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
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* Council 31’s spokesman Anders Lindall responds to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s anti-union memo to lawmakers…
It’s bizarre and outrageous for Bruce Rauner to suggest that public employees aren’t ‘working families’. He’s wrong to vilify workers who serve the public, earn middle-class wages and have a right to a voice through their union.
And it’s especially offensive for Rauner to criticize prison and highway workers who risk their lives to do some of our state’s most dangerous work.
His false attacks seem designed to distract from real problems, like tax loopholes for big corporations and giveaways to wealthy individuals who funded Rauner’s political campaign.
The governor spoke often about closing corporate tax loopholes during the campaign. Not much since, however.
I’m told the governor’s State of the State address will focus on solutions and not on the state’s problems. It’s about freaking time.
* A whole bunch of people sent me a link to this WaPo story about Congressman Aaron Schock’s newly renovated DC office…
Bright red walls. A gold-colored wall sconce with black candles. A Federal-style bull’s-eye mirror with an eagle perched on top. And this is just the Illinois Republican’s outer office.
“It’s actually based off of the red room in ‘Downton Abbey,’ ” said the woman behind the front desk, comparing it to the luxurious set piece at the heart of the British period drama. […]
She introduced herself as Annie Brahler, the interior decorator whose company is called Euro Trash. She guided me to Schock’s private office, revealing another dramatic red room. This one with a drippy crystal chandelier, a table propped up by two eagles, a bust of Abraham Lincoln and massive arrangements of pheasant feathers.
Then, my phone rang.
It was Schock’s communications director, Benjamin Cole.
“Are you taking pictures of the office?” he asked. “Who told you you could do that? . . . Okay, stay where you are. You’ve created a bit of a crisis in the office.”
What? They thought nobody would find out? It’s a public office, for crying out loud. I mean, yeah, some of it was donated by the designer and Schock paid for the rest, but it’s still in the Rayburn Building.
House rules prohibit Members of Congress from accepting most gifts valued at $50 or more — including “gifts of services, training, transportation, lodging, and meals, whether provided in kind, by purchase of a ticket, payment in advance, or reimbursement after the expense has been incurred.”
Stephen Spaulding, policy counsel for the non-partisan Common Cause, told ThinkProgress that this donation of services from a professional decorator could well violate both the spirit and letter of the House gift rules: “It certainly raises plenty of questions that I think [Schock] needs to answer.”
Attorney General Lisa Madigan today announced a $1.375 billion settlement with Standard & Poor’s to resolve allegations that the credit ratings agency compromised its independence and objectivity in assigning its highest ratings to risky mortgage-backed securities in the lead up to the 2008 economic collapse.
Illinois will receive $52.5 million under the joint state-federal settlement forged by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Madigan and 19 other attorneys general and S&P, a subsidiary of McGraw-Hill Companies, that is one of the nation’s largest credit ratings agencies responsible for independently rating risk on behalf of clients and investors.
In 2012, Madigan was one of the first attorneys general in the country to file a lawsuit against S&P for its misconduct that contributed to the 2008 collapse. Madigan’s lawsuit alleged S&P compromised its independence as a ratings agency by doling out high ratings to unworthy, risky investments to increase its profits, while its misrepresentations spurred investors, including Illinois’ pension funds, to purchase securities that were far riskier than their ratings indicated.
“Standard & Poor’s deliberately exploited its trusted reputation as an independent analyst to maximize profits and gain market share, and in the process, S&P became a key enabler of the economic meltdown,” Attorney General Madigan said. “Were it not for S&P abandoning its core principles, these securities, made up of unsustainable mortgages destined for default, could never and would never have been purchased by many investors.”
According to the settlement, S&P consistently made misrepresentations about the processes it used to assign credit ratings to mortgage-backed securities. While publicly promising independent, objective analyses, the company privately relaxed its ratings criteria and manipulated subprime mortgage data to ensure its clients’ mortgage-backed securities would achieve higher ratings than the actual quality of the assets supported. These tactics were part of an overarching corporate strategy intended to retain clients and increase market share, according to the settlement agreement.
Mortgage-backed securities are financial products made up of a pool of mortgages that are bundled together and sold as a security. The assets are backed by residential mortgages, including subprime mortgages. The performance of these investment products have significant, real-world implications for Illinois institutional investors, such as pension funds and 401(k) managers that make decisions about whether, and which, of these securities are appropriate investments. It was the misrepresentation of the true risk of these mortgage securities that helped the housing market skyrocket and ultimately led to its collapse in 2008.
Under today’s settlement, S&P will pay a $1.375 billion penalty, which exceeds the company’s profits earned for rating mortgage-backed securities from 2002-2007. The majority of the relief awarded to Illinois will be distributed to the state’s pension systems. Further, S&P has agreed to a statement of facts acknowledging conduct related to its analysis of structured finance securities. S&P also agreed to comply with all applicable state laws and will cooperate with requests for information from states that may express concern over a possible violation of state law. The states have also retained authority to enforce their laws – the same laws used to bring these cases – if S&P engages in similar conduct in the future.
* The Tribune reports that far more people have signed up for Medicaid than expected and costs per person are skyrocketing…
Starting in 2017, Illinois and other states that also expanded their programs are required to start paying a small portion of the bill, rising to no more than 10 percent of the total tab. State health officials estimated in 2012 that Illinois’ portion of the expansion would cost $573 million from 2017 through 2020.
But far more people signed up in 2014, the expansion’s first year, than the state expected. Based on multiple interviews and a Tribune analysis of government data, Illinois will pay at least $907 million from 2017 through 2020 because of those new members. The tab could surge even higher, though.
A document sent by Quinn’s office to the federal government over the summer significantly raised the per-person estimated cost, bumping the state’s total outlay to $2 billion, using 2014 enrollment numbers, more than three times the original estimate. […]
Original projections anticipated that 199,000 residents would sign up in 2014, potentially rising to no more than 342,000. State officials estimated a monthly, per person cost of $454, and revised that number upward to $882 in the document sent to in June to federal officials.
But through December, 540,877 joined Medicaid’s ranks. State officials said thousands more likely signed up through January.
* The Tribune editorial board wants the state to impose fees…
Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana in recent days announced an expansion of Medicaid, with a twist. The Republican governor secured the approval of the Obama administration to require that Medicaid enrollees chip in a small contribution — up to around $26 a month for a single adult — for their health care premiums. If people fail to make the payments, they could be denied coverage for six months.
The deal also discourages unnecessary trips to the emergency room — an expensive item in every Medicaid budget — by imposing copays of up to $25 for patients who make unnecessary trips.
Pence’s plan will provide health care to as many as 350,000 people, and set a new model for responsible use of that health care.
