GOP senator likes part of Quinn’s Medicaid bill

SPRINGFIELD — Suburban hospitals would take a 3.5 percent cut in what the state sends them to care for low-income patients under a proposal state lawmakers have fashioned to address their biggest budget hurdle of the year.

Only two suburban hospitals — Provena Mercy Medical Center in Aurora and Adventist Glen Oaks Hospital in Glendale Heights — are among the 19 that would be exempt because they serve a large number of poor patients. Sixteen are in Chicago.

Another 51 rural hospitals also would be exempt.

Nursing homes would see a 2.7 percent cut in what the state pays for low-income patients under the plan, which could be debated in Springfield as early as today.

The plan is part of a $1.9 billion proposal to try to cut what the state pays for health care for the poor under the Medicaid program.

This area of the state budget has grown sharply, preventing lawmakers from spending money elsewhere, like on schools.

And it’s an issue that has become important in the suburbs, as Medicaid enrollment has grown far more sharply in the collar counties in recent years than elsewhere in Illinois.

“This is not a time for delay or denial or doing nothing,” Gov. Pat Quinn said Monday.

Representatives of the Illinois Hospital Association, who have so far railed against reimbursement rate cuts, declined to comment as they reviewed the new plan.

The plan doesn’t include a $1-per-pack increase in the cigarette tax favored by Quinn and others, but that could be coming soon because lawmakers want to cut Medicaid spending by $2.7 billion, and they still have a ways to go.

In the meantime, Senate Democrats, including Sen. Dan Kotowski of Park Ridge, began debating in committee a state budget proposal that sets aside $1.3 billion to pay a portion of the state’s estimated $9 billion in overdue bills.

Republicans pushed back, though, saying they don’t think Democrats have cut spending deep enough.

State Sen. Pam Althoff, a McHenry Republican, said she appreciated that her party was included in budget talks and that some of their ideas were used.

But she said supporting the Democrats’ plan was “impossible” because it didn’t cut enough.

Even if Senate Democrats try to go it alone on the budget, they’ll have to reconcile their plan with whatever the Illinois House comes up with, as well as with Quinn.

And if lawmakers can’t agree to enough Medicaid cuts, they’ll likely have to go back and cut more from their budget plans.

Lawmakers are scheduled to be in Springfield through May 31, their budget deadline.