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Health News Illinois convened a panel of lawmakers this week in Springfield to preview the upcoming legislative session.
Along with the expected budgetary challenges at the state and national levels, the group spoke on what’s next on behavioral health, prescription drugs and the Medicaid program.
Panelists included:
- Sen. Laura Fine, D-Glenview
- Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford
- Rep. Anna Moeller, D-Elgin
- Rep. Norine Hammond, R-Macomb
Edited excerpts below:
HNI: What might the legislative Medicaid working group look at this spring?
Anna Moeller: All eyes are going to be on Washington come mid-March to find out what happens with the budget reconciliation bill. We have the trigger law in place so if the administration decides to get rid of Medicaid expansion, we’re going to lose roughly 770,000 people off of healthcare in Illinois, and the ripple effect of that is going to be enormous, not to mention all of the obligations that we have in place. It’s a tapestry. I’ve been talking to a lot of people about this, and there are a lot of analogies, but you pull one thread and the whole thing starts to unravel. So that could end up being a major focus of the group beyond our traditional consideration of rate increase requests and waiver requests.
HNI: As discussions continue at the federal level on potential Medicaid cuts, is there anything state lawmakers can proactively do, or is it a wait-and-see approach?
Anna Moeller: I think there is a wait-and-see approach. We can do what we can with the resources that we have, but I’m hopeful that we’re going to see that Congress and the administration will understand how critical these programs are, and the effect that this will have on communities across the country, not just in blue states. I have a sister who lives in central Illinois and she just recently signed up with healthcare.gov, she needed access to health insurance as her husband was recently laid off. She’s working part-time, she has some disabilities, she’s getting older and was worried about not being insured. A month after getting enrolled in the ACA with a $50 monthly premium that she’s paying, she broke her leg, and thankfully she had that health insurance in place… and I do worry if we have these big changes, what’s going to happen to people like my sister and her family? And I think that those who might want to make these changes should have an understanding that this could have some very devastating effects on people. So there’s just a lot that’s out of our control right now. But I think as legislators, and as we’ll see from the governor, making sure that we’re maintaining what we can with the resources that we have control over is going to be important. But there’s, there’s just too many interrelated programs, and it’s hard to say right now.
Norine Hammond: I think for us in the state of Illinois, there is a lot that we can continue to do. Lord knows there’s a lot of work to be done in the healthcare space. Outcomes are extremely important, so we can certainly continue to move forward and look at our programs. What can we do to reinforce them and make them more effective without spending a lot of money? And we can look at the what-ifs: what if none of this comes to fruition in Washington? Then we want to be ready for that. And then we look at what if this does happen in Washington, then we want to be able to react to that. What is that reaction? I don’t know. Do we do away with the trigger law? Do we keep the trigger law in place? I think that there are a lot of discussions that we as legislators can have, and we don’t need to just sit around on our hands and wait to see what Washington is going to do, because God only knows when that will be.
HNI: What is the latest on the effort to increase the behavioral health workforce?
Laura Fine: We have a work group that met for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and we’re meeting again next Friday, and it is made up of people who are in the field, professors like Dr. Kari Wolf from the School of Psychiatry at (Southern Illinois University School of Medicine), and we’re working with a professional organization and figuring out what we can do to make sure we get a wonderful program in place, and that this program is successful. So we’re looking at it at every end right now. And what is fascinating is everybody’s coming in with a different experience. So somebody will say, ‘I think we should be doing this’ and it kind of sets off an ‘A-ha’ moment. So we’re going to be continuing to meet so we can put our ideas together and really put this program in place. But again, it’s a really exciting way that Illinois is moving forward and saying that we’re going to provide the services we need and make sure that we can have people in the workforce to fill those jobs. Because the saddest thing was, a few years ago, I was touring a mental health facility that had about 40 percent empty beds, and I asked them, ‘Why are these beds empty?’ And they said, ‘We don’t have anybody to work with us, and it’s not safe to have patience there if we do not have the proper staff.’ So we want to make sure that we can put an end to that and make sure that everybody can have the help they need.
HNI: What can be done on prescription drug costs? What about the 340B Program?
Dave Syverson: Right now, we’re spending more on medications than we are on hospitals. So it’s a huge cost. It’s such a deep dive, because… But ultimately it’s also the amount of drug usage we have. And we don’t want to talk about the unpolitically correct issues to address some of the issues that are driving so much of this. But when you have a country that is obese, and Illinois is as obese as the country, when you look at the costs that are associated with that, especially medications for arthritis and diabetes and all the other related health issues. As a state, we are focusing more on trying to improve health so there’s less reliance on medications. But it’s such a complex issue, and it’s tough to deal with it at just the state level, but clearly, the lowest-hanging fruit right now is dealing with it is the 340B issue that we hope can get ultimately addressed, because many healthcare providers, that’s that’s Really what’s keeping them in the black. |
