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14 vets signed up for much-hyped program

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Illinois

When people claim that the Blagojevich administration is more interested in grand press pops than actually getting anything done, this is a perfect example of what they’re talking about.

Only 14 people have enrolled in a new Illinois veterans health care program that Gov. Rod Blagojevich billed as vital to helping thousands of people who don’t qualify for federal aid.

Aides to the governor called it “a very good start” Wednesday, although some lawmakers criticized administration of the program and one veterans group said it diverts resources from more important needs.

“They’re putting money in the wrong place, as far as we’re concerned,” said Matthew Claussen, commander of the Illinois department of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Enrollment for the “Veterans Care” program has been open for 75 days, but only 14 people have enrolled, with an additional 19 applications pending, the Blagojevich administration said.

Officials said hundreds of other veterans expressed interest but turned out to be eligible for federal programs.

And…

Blagojevich made creation of Veterans Care a key issue in the just-concluded campaign for governor. He claimed his Republican opponent, Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, would cut money for veterans health programs if she were elected.

Despite repeated requests from the news media, state officials would not release enrollment figures for the program before the Nov. 7 election. Cardenas denied that decision was political.

Release of the figures “has nothing to do with the date of the election,” he said. “We were awaiting final word from the federal government. It’s information as we received it.”

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Nov 16, 06 @ 8:16 am

Comments

Uh, well, duhhh (finger stuck in my nose)…if the governor’s people say we need it, and it’s helping thousands of people, then it must be great. Those people surrounding the governor are so honest, I’m sure the fact that they had enrollment open for 75 days prior to the election means they somehow needed word from the federal government to release the huge enrollment numbers they’re getting. Nothing political about it at all. Please.

FWIW, I had to come up with a new nickname, since schroedk was getting blocked by Rich’s spam filter.

Comment by west central conservative Thursday, Nov 16, 06 @ 8:28 am
another hat tip to the IL media
Is there any wonder why Dancing with the Stars gets good ratings

Comment by Reddbyrd Thursday, Nov 16, 06 @ 8:31 am
If one vet is helped, wasn’t it all worth it? Redbyrd, if folks had watched any of the news, Rod would have gathered 20% of the vote.

Perhaps Judy can have her son sign up to help the gov out.

Comment by Wumpus Thursday, Nov 16, 06 @ 8:35 am
Too funny…and sad, all at the same time.

Comment by Rob Thursday, Nov 16, 06 @ 8:39 am
Did you see the small article in the Tribune about federal procecutors dismissing one charge againt Levine. I think this very interesting since he already pleaded guilty to the charge. He must be giving them everything they need and more against a very big fish.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Nov 16, 06 @ 8:59 am
Does this make the program wrong?

Blago ran on helping vets that were not covered with health care. He is fullfilling his promise through this program. Health coverage for Vets is a huge problem and if you noticed there was interest, but it turned out the other applicants were elegible for federal programs although they were unaware of it. Illinois then guided them to the correct federal contacts.

Its more than any other administration is done.

Comment by Roomie Thursday, Nov 16, 06 @ 9:04 am
Enough of these patchwork programs that do little to solve the problem. Why isn’t Blagojevich pushing for single-payer universal healthcare in Illinois?

Comment by Squideshi Thursday, Nov 16, 06 @ 9:04 am
Roomie:

No, it makes the program entirely too expensive.

Comment by RickG Thursday, Nov 16, 06 @ 9:07 am
What I don’t buy is that there are only 14 veterans in the state of IL that don’t have health insurance. There are certainly dozens to hundreds of unemployed, underemployed and homeless veterans. The state apparatus just can’t get anything done right. One can certainly question whether this program should exist, but one cannot question whether there are alot more uninsured veterans.

Comment by Niles Township Thursday, Nov 16, 06 @ 9:10 am
Rick G:

Are you against helping veterans that have nowhere else to turn?

Comment by Leroy Thursday, Nov 16, 06 @ 9:57 am
Rommie â€“

It doesnâ€™t make the program wrong, but it does reveal the Governorâ€™s marketing of it to be what it is: an over-hyped solution to an exaggerated program for purely political gain.

As I posted at Illinoize previously, my brother got 2 letters from different state agencies on the same day, with the same letter signed by the governor, in which he made it seem as if this was a huge crisis for which he was providing much needed relief. Illinois is a big state with many vets, and only 3 a week have signed up since the programs start 75 days ago? The kicker is â€œOfficials said hundreds of other veterans expressed interest but turned out to be eligible for federal programs.â€ Looks like it wasnâ€™t that big a deal after all! Wonder how many man hours and postage went into drafting and mailing those letters â€“ more than one of which went to each veteran.

Bottom line: he tried to make it look like he was helping vets when, for all intents and purposes, he was not. He misrepresented both the problem and his solution. Vets donâ€™t take to kindly to being manipulated like that.

http://capitalfax.blogspot.com/2006/10/who-needs-state-job-when-youve-can-get.html

Comment by grand old partisan Thursday, Nov 16, 06 @ 10:11 am
Sorry for the back-to-back post, but seriously Leroy.

Being against a government program that is helping fewer than 100 people does not necessarily mean that you are categorically against helping them. It means that you have some common sense, and realize that if the government started creating programs to help every microscopic sector of the population, we’d be up to our ears in debt and taxes (even more so than we already are).

Comment by grand old partisan Thursday, Nov 16, 06 @ 10:14 am
Leroy: what grand said.

Cost/benefit analysis proves that this is not the way to help those veterans, that there is a better solution. Perhaps if the state listened to groups such as the VFW that work on a daily basis with veterans, we could find out what that solution is.

You have to use your resources in the best way possible to help as many people as possible. It is obvious simply by looking at the numbers that this is not the best possible answer.

I don’t know how many thousands of dollars the state spent on this program, but let’s take an extremely conservative estimate and say $100,000. That means the state spent $5,263 bucks per veteran to sign up 19 people.

Do you believe that’s fiscally responsible? I sure don’t.

I am not against helping veterans. I am against helping veterans, or anybody, wastefully. There are better solutions.

Comment by RickG Thursday, Nov 16, 06 @ 10:57 am
And just an addendum: Now I hear that the state wants to take the money from that Veterans scratch-off lottery game and put that into the Veterans Care program. It’s raised about $2,000,000.

$2,000,000/19 = $105,263.16 per person.

That’s 5 times my annual salary, each. The state can use it more efficiently.

Comment by RickG Thursday, Nov 16, 06 @ 11:25 am
It’s not that the program is wrong, it’s just inefficient. There are so many progams that currently exist for different groups in need. Someone who is truly interested in helping these groups without getting a press bump out of it might consider doing education on existing programs rather than creating new ones. Like…

For instance Governor Blagojevich’s All Kids program…

Rich, any current number on how many NEW kids signed up for the program? The Department likes to include all of the kids who simply moved from Medicaid to All Kids, but how many new kids are being covered?

Also, Squideshi, go ahead and support a single-payer health care system if you want health care workers to actually take care of you in Illinois and not free in great numbers. Ask your doctor how much they trust and get paid by government payers (Medicare and Medicaid).

Comment by Wildcat Thursday, Nov 16, 06 @ 12:18 pm
Sorry, I should have proofed my last post. It should say if you don’t want health care workers to take care of you in Illinois and not flee in great numbers. Single-payer is not something supported by a vast majority of the medical community and they’ll simply move if it’s imposed in Illinois.

Comment by Wildcat Thursday, Nov 16, 06 @ 12:20 pm
Just another case of funding new programs before paying for the old ones. The current budget shorts ISAC and the Veteran benefits they are required to maintain, only problem is they do not have the money. Who pays, YOU DO IF YOU ARE PAYING COLLEGE TUITION !! The cost of the program gets passed on through increased fees and higher tuition. Think it is just nickels? NOPE, IT ADDS UP TO MILLIONS FOR YOU AND YOUR CHECK BOOK.

Comment by PayTheBills Thursday, Nov 16, 06 @ 1:01 pm
This was plain and simply an election year ploy for hype and a feel good press release. Again this looks like a good thing at first glance, but the devil is in the details. The taxpayers take it on the chin again. Typical Blago, issue feel good press releases and refuse to report the progress of the program. How would this have sounded a few days before the election, only “14″ vets have signed up since the program was initiated. The press inquired but the governor’s office refused to release the stats. Instead of holding his feet to the fire the issue was basically dropped by the press. That is the history of this administration. If you don’t want to answer questions, refuse to answer or duck out a side door. He may think he is king, but he is a public servant and needs to be up front to the people of this state. That won’t happen until the press gets tough with him and won’t take no for an answer.

Comment by Downstater Thursday, Nov 16, 06 @ 1:02 pm
Rod cares about vets just long enough for them and people who love them to vote, then he doesn’t care if they die off of old age or untreated health issues. You were all used, if you thought your vote for Rod was a vote for more vets care.

Now watch him rape the veterans scratch-off money like he’s raided all the other special funds. Even after he promised to keep this money sacrosanct.

Translation: “Here, Charlie Brown vet, I’ll hold this football and you come running up and kick it.”

Comment by Gregor Thursday, Nov 16, 06 @ 2:20 pm
Structural deficit, what structural deficit? If we had one in Illinois then Rod couldn’t have these Socialized “health care” programs. Boy oh boy, doesn’t that guy from AFSCME know it takes a deficit to operate faulty programs. Geeez.

Comment by Buck Flagojevich Thursday, Nov 16, 06 @ 2:25 pm
As Blagojevich and his flying monkeys point out, if every one of his health programs covers 14 people, then that means Blagojevich can propose another 887,092 programs to solve this problem!

“Are you against helping veterans that have nowhere else to turn?” - what a Care Bear statement. With fourteen of them, you can put them into a little bus and send them to Blagojevich personally for the keys to the empty governor’s mansion for warm milk and cookies.

Move over Bill - sounds like someone is trying to out-delusion you.

Comment by VanillaMan Thursday, Nov 16, 06 @ 3:43 pm
Once a fraud, always a fraud. Welcome to four more years of “The Rod Show.”

Comment by Bubs Thursday, Nov 16, 06 @ 5:44 pm
Maybe we’re a little too cynical. One of FDR’s strengths, I believe, was his willingness to try something to solve a societal problem, and if it didn’t work, throw it out and try something else.

Comment by steve schnorf Thursday, Nov 16, 06 @ 6:05 pm
Has anyone noticed that some new brochures for these programs has the Governor’s name on them 3 to 4 times in one brochure? It is only about promoting himself, and not the state services.

Comment by So Blue Democrat Thursday, Nov 16, 06 @ 7:28 pm
And the Governor certainly is not FDR. Please do not give him any ideas!

Comment by So Blue Democrat Thursday, Nov 16, 06 @ 7:29 pm
Steve, that would be a valid point if the administration showed any signs of saying “Okay, this didn’t work, let’s do something else.” But it’s not.

As mentioned, testimony in front of the House Veterans’ Committee showed that the Gov’s office still wants to take the $2,000,000-plus and throw it into this program that obviously doesn’t need it.

You’ll notice that I haven’t attacked the Gov, or referenced any other “Care”s. I don’t like them, but for different reasons. This one — it’s wasteful government, wasteful bureaucracy and we can do better.

And we should want to.

Comment by RickG Thursday, Nov 16, 06 @ 9:40 pm
“#

Has anyone noticed that some new brochures for these programs has the Governorâ€™s name on them 3 to 4 times in one brochure? It is only about promoting himself, and not the state services.”

Three or four times in one brochure?! Go to the online All Kids application and it think it’s in there 11 times. It’s the same for all those feel good programs. They are coated with his name and/or face and signature. Some one in a previous post further up the chain than this one speculated about the cost of postage to send this obvious campaign literature out. It’s in the millions, folks.

By the way, his postcard applications for the ISaveRX program are being returned with some great comments on them. One particularly pithy one wanted to know why Mrs. B.s dealings with Rezko didn’t constitute an ethics problem.

Comment by Really Disgusted Thursday, Nov 16, 06 @ 11:02 pm
Uh, isn’t this the same caring governor who has gone out of his way to get around the veterans hiring laws? While it is tempting to ask, “who is he trying to kid?”, he obviously fooled 49% of the people who voted!!!

Comment by UGH!! Friday, Nov 17, 06 @ 8:31 pm