Blagojevich's health-care expansion getting hard look

SPRINGFIELD -- A panel of lawmakers today could decide the fate of Gov. Rod Blagojevich's unilateral attempt to expand health care to thousands of additional families, a move that would cost state taxpayers millions.

With little fanfare, Blagojevich last week declared a health-care emergency and expanded government coverage to families making up to $82,600 -- four times the federal poverty limit for a family of four.

"The lack of access to insurance has reached a crisis level requiring immediate action," his administration said in filing the emergency health--care expansion.

The move could add nearly 147,000 adults to government health-care rolls and cost taxpayers $300 million annually, lawmakers said. Blagojevich aides say the cost just for the remainder of this budget year would be $43 million.

His efforts follow a recent vow to expand health care regardless of lawmakers' wishes. Attempts to sway the General Assembly's support for such programs -- and the massive new taxes needed to fund them -- have been unsuccessful.

Suburban lawmakers serving on the committee that now holds the fate of the health-care plan say this is far too big and costly to be decided by such an obscure group.

"It's not that we don't want to provide health care for these people, I don't think we have the authority," said state Rep. Rosemary Mulligan, a Des Plaines Republican.

"No matter how you feel about health care … this isn't a proper way for an initiative that's this important, to kind of slide it through this way," echoed state Sen. Randy Hultgren, a Winfield Republican.

Last week, Blagojevich filed emergency rules for a program to ostensibly ensure nearly 20,000 parents would keep government coverage if and when they're kicked out of a federal program. Congress voted to extend that program, but President Bush vetoed it, saying it had strayed from its initial goal of insuring children and was growing into federal health care.

But in addition to offering coverage for those parents, Blagojevich added thousands more by decreasing the income restrictions.

Unless members of the committee vote to block the governor's move, the expansion is in effect for nearly five months, at which point permanent policies for the program would be expected from the Blagojevich administration.