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My Sun-Times column runs today:
If your application for the state’s new “All Kids” health care plan is rejected, here’s the computer-generated letter you’ll get: “Your application for the All Kids health insurance program has been denied.”Simple. Straightforward. Right to the point. You may have thought you qualified for the new program, which is supposed to cover working families who can’t afford health insurance, but you’re out of luck.
If you’re accepted into the plan, however, this is the letter you’ll get:
“Your application for Governor Blagojevich’s All Kids health insurance program has been approved. Thank you for your application. Governor Blagojevich believes there is nothing more important than making sure your family has access to the health care they need.”
Notice the slight difference?
posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Jul 14, 06 @ 10:31 am
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And you’re surprised? No different than plastering his name all over tollway signs or Cook County’s practice of putting pol’s names on Forest Preserve signs. I think he should be required to change the rejection letter to read:
“Governor Blagojevich’s minions have declined your application for the All Kids health insurance program. Better luck next time.â€
Comment by Ken Friday, Jul 14, 06 @ 10:41 am
Or how about; Sorry, but if you would like to contribute to Gov. Blagojevich’s campaign fund we will not only re-review your application, we will also consider you for a State job.
Comment by anon Friday, Jul 14, 06 @ 10:51 am
Since it is the Gov’s plan and his name is all over it - maybe he should pay the claims rather than the taxpayers. Can he be sued for late claim payments because his name is on it?
Comment by Mr. Ethics Friday, Jul 14, 06 @ 11:16 am
I have one word for you: shameless. Here’s another word: cheeky, brazen, and unprincipled.
Comment by the Other Anonymous Friday, Jul 14, 06 @ 11:21 am
I thought everyone could qualify. But let’s be cereal, there has to be a cut off at some point, despite those leading commercials. At worst, it is false advertising.
Comment by Wumpus Friday, Jul 14, 06 @ 11:22 am
I’m surprised the rejection letters don’t somehow slur Judy in the process.
Comment by Gregor Friday, Jul 14, 06 @ 11:31 am
Re your Sun-Times column - it only needs one word to sum up this group of self-promoters - nauseating!
Comment by Disgusted Friday, Jul 14, 06 @ 11:46 am
I am suprised that the reject leaders doesnt read more like this: “Your application for the All Kids health insurance program has been denied. Governor Blageovich has been working hard to make health accessable to all, but in this like in his other great works he has been underminded by Juby Bar Topinka and her other puppy eating Republican allies”
Comment by rmwstanford Friday, Jul 14, 06 @ 12:00 pm
What more must the people of this state have to endure before this SOB is brought to justice?
Comment by Randall Sherman, Secretary/Treasurer, Illinois Committee for Honest Government Friday, Jul 14, 06 @ 12:33 pm
Your insurance for your kid has been denied but if you meet one of our agents and bring 3 friends who will sign a pledge to vote for me we will happily sign your child up.Oh as a bonus to speed up the paper work bring some cash for my upcoming indictment.
Comment by DOWNSTATE Friday, Jul 14, 06 @ 12:49 pm
And people thought I was being cynical about All Kids being a re-election project more than a public policy project.
Comment by Carl Nyberg Friday, Jul 14, 06 @ 12:54 pm
It’s funny that all the Blago supporters are speechless when it comes to issues like this.
“I am voting for the Governor because he has not raised taxes….he has forced universities to reign in costs….he has provided healthcare to our kids and seniors….he supports a woman’s right to choose….”
Perhaps we should add that “he unapologetically uses state money to further his campaign….he hands out jobs to campaign donors…etc.”
The blind partisanship of Blago supporters is sickening.
Comment by uiucleader Friday, Jul 14, 06 @ 12:54 pm
If Sam is correct, then I withdraw my comment. But I don’t think Rich makes things up — well, mostly
I wonder if the wording of the letter changed at some point?
Comment by the Other Anonymous Friday, Jul 14, 06 @ 12:55 pm
Rich Miller, I remember when JBT you to be in all those commericials about College saving funds, why did’nt you make a fuss then.
Now that Topinka is asking for the Gov.’s job list, we should take a look at her’s and would find your name on that list for sure.
Your shameless, and definintly show how little compassion for working,blue collar familes who are trying to survive and raise there families,you have. It is working class families that are fighting in Iraq to defend our freedoms,to allow us to blog on sites like your, who can’t afford family health insurance because you fat cat republicans could care less about us. Keep denfending Walmart and Target and Judy Barr Topinks, I’ll stand by Blago. because he is a man of the people and he knows how hard it is to survive now a days without insurance for families and he is doing and trying to do something about it!!!
Comment by Que comemierda Friday, Jul 14, 06 @ 1:00 pm
I think the 2 letters taken together can be used as evidence that Elvis is using tax dollars and a state office for campaign purposes. Well, Ms. Madigan?
Comment by Uncle Slappy Friday, Jul 14, 06 @ 1:18 pm
Blagojevich promised he wouldn’t do things like this. Like his promise to change business as usual, reform the system, scuttle pork-barrel funding, and grow up.
Comment by VanillaMan Friday, Jul 14, 06 @ 2:16 pm
BUSINESS AS USUAL, BUSINESS AS USUAL!
Just like this:
http://randomactofkindness.com/comments.php?id=P1029_0_1_0
Healthcare and Family Services has a lot of questions to answers about questionable numbers throught it’s programs.
Why is the Governor’s name used anyway when it violates the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act?
What’s even worse is no matter if a person is approved for the program or not, what is the difference in using the Governor’s name for those who have been approved as opposed to those who were not approved?
Is he not the Governor for the entire state of Illinois and not just those who have been accepted into a program initiated under his leadership of the state?
Or is this a political manuever to get the Gov’s name out to all those who have been approved and simultaneously give the credit for the program to Governor Blagojevich?
BUSINESS AS USUAL!
Comment by One Man Can Make A Difference Friday, Jul 14, 06 @ 2:39 pm
To me this is a clear violation of the Ethics Act, which prohibits politico’s like Blago from putting their name on stuff like this. I’m sure the Inspector General, who is controlled by the Governor, will give this its due dilligence.
Comment by Anon Friday, Jul 14, 06 @ 3:10 pm
Rod is the governor and all correspondence from state agencies to citizens should have his name on it somewhere. If Sam is quoting the letters correctly than Rich should probably print a retraction. If not, than leaving the governor’s name off the rejection letter was probably an mistake by some repub holdover Rutan protected staffer.
uiucleader: The blind hatred of the governor without regard for the issues is what is sickening.
Comment by Bill Friday, Jul 14, 06 @ 3:27 pm
Bill, I will now refer to you as the former Jane Curtain from Saturday Night Live, “you ignorant $l*t! It had to be a holdover repub’s that made the mistake not one of Blago’s clueless hacks, please climb back under your rock!
Comment by Girardo Friday, Jul 14, 06 @ 3:38 pm
I don’t back Blago to much in these blogs but JBT and her Bright Start commercials set the standard in self promotion on the taxpayers dime.
Comment by Garp Friday, Jul 14, 06 @ 4:22 pm
And, such ads were made illegal.
Comment by Cal Skinner Friday, Jul 14, 06 @ 4:32 pm
Those commercials were before the ethics act. Judy does not use her name any longer on them. Other elected officials as SOS Jesse White have kept his name off of public ads as well.
Comment by Mr. Ethics Friday, Jul 14, 06 @ 4:35 pm
How come when I go to the Bright Start web site there is JBT’s name in the right hand corner?
Comment by Garp Friday, Jul 14, 06 @ 4:47 pm
This is so typical of this administration. They have no shame or class. What a pity.
Comment by todd Friday, Jul 14, 06 @ 4:59 pm
GOD WILL IT EVER END WITH BLADGO !!!
Comment by annon. Friday, Jul 14, 06 @ 6:03 pm
The governot is using his name on this program for nothing more than campaign propaganda. Jesse White can no longer use his name or appear in commercials for the organ donor program. Same for JBT and the Bright Start program. Who is the one who must file a complaint about Blogo and to whom do we file it? If Ms. Madigan is waiting for an official complaint, send me the form. Does John Q Public have to use his/her own money to take this man to court. Shouldn’t we have some agency; i.e. Inspector General, Attorney General, who will notice this breach of the law and do it for us? Come on Lisa. Do the right thing. This is not taking sides nor a political ploy. It is enforcing the law.
Comment by Little Egypt Friday, Jul 14, 06 @ 6:14 pm
Sam, I asked a spokesperson about the letter, read it to her and got it confirmed.
Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Jul 14, 06 @ 6:39 pm
Also, this afternoon the same spokesperson and I were in a back and forth and she said that “of course” the guv’s office stood by the letters.
Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Jul 14, 06 @ 6:41 pm
“Que comemierda” writes: “Your shameless, and definintly show how little compassion for working,blue collar familes who are trying to survive and raise there families,you have”====
This is from my column: “Is it a good thing that 45,000 kids now have health insurance? You bet it is, even with all the problems associated with any new Medicaid plan. Doctors and hospitals are wary of doing any sort of business with the notoriously slow-paying state, but insuring children is a relatively cheap proposition and because half of all kids who don’t have health insurance come from families who make far more than poverty wages, something had to be done”.====
Please read before you open your floodgates. As for the rest of your rant, well, you’ve shown your stripes.
Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Jul 14, 06 @ 7:03 pm
Garp 4:22 -
You don’t care about Jesse White and all his commercials that ran in past years? Those were ok because they promoted a democrat?
The law was changed/added(?) since then. I know it will be extraordinarily difficult for you, but try to be fair.
Comment by Anonymous Friday, Jul 14, 06 @ 7:58 pm
The acceptance letters should read: You have been accepted for the “All Kids” health insurance program. Now…good luck finding a doctor who will serve you because for some reason these selfish, disloyal people seem to think they should actually get paid and of course, while you may be earning $150,000 — we are only paying the doctors the same amount they would get if you were making $10,000 and on Medicaid. Oh…yeah…we forgot… we don’t really pay them — we just pretend to pay them.
Comment by Old Elephant Friday, Jul 14, 06 @ 8:42 pm