Story of waste belonged on Page 1

An excellent article on Illinois' All Kids $79.1 million health insurance program was published by the Daily Herald on May 12. The article reported on an audit of the program serving over 75,000 children. Here is another example of government gone wild. The article pointed out that $55 million in claims were paid to undocumented immigrants. The audit reported the program has run amok in many areas including a) benefits being paid beyond age cutoffs, b) no verification of whether the children lived in Illinois, c) claims being covered even though families stopped paying premiums, and d) lack of documentation on a multimillion dollar marketing campaign.

When Illinois is struggling with a $13 billion budget shortfall, this kind of news should be a front-page story. Unfortunately, here is an opportunity to correct a wrong which was buried on page 10 while a "feel good" story about a dog and an owner being reunited is boldly displayed on the front page.

To correct the wrong in state government, we should be urging our lawmakers and governor to re-evaluate maintenance of this wasteful program. Meanwhile, the 2006 Blagojevich program should be suspended until it can be re-engineered to hold the agency, Health and Family Services, accountable to effectively insure qualified children.

We should urge our publishers to recognize the time demands of their intelligent readers. Be upfront with your readers and save the "feel good" content as fillers for trailing stories well after page one or the health of the newsprint industry will continue to "go to the dogs."

Mike Tennis

Sleepy Hollow