SPRINGFIELD – Tossing control of federal health care dollars back to the states is something the Left stands firmly against – and exactly what the Republican U.S. Senate majority's latest attempt at reforming ObamaCare would do.
Illinois' Left had nothing to fear from the state's two elected U.S. Senators. Of course, Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth declared time and time again they had no intention of supporting the effort set forth by GOP senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Illinois native Dr. Bill Cassidy (R-LA).
American Bridge, an Leftist activist group blasted the Graham-Cassidy proposal and explained why the Left is so opposed to it:
The Graham-Cassidy bill is the worst version of Trumpcare yet. The bill would kick 965,000 Illinoisans off of their health insurance and rob the state of $9.26 billion in federal funding over the next ten years. It ends Medicaid as we know it, guts protections for people with preexisting conditions, and defunds Planned Parenthood. The American Medical Association, AARP, The American Heart Association, and 35 anti-cancer advocacy groups all oppose the bill.
American Bridge condemned Governor Rauner for not signing onto a letter with other governors opposing the bill. The Left hit Twitter, calling for Rauner to condemn the proposal. Their long term solution is a single-payer system similar to Canada and Great Britain's systems.
Nowhere does American Bridge answer what most Illinoisans that pay for their own health care insurance knows: the choices are limited. With limited choices come less competition. And with less competition comes higher premiums and deductibles.
As Biz Journals reported last year about what was going to happen in Illinois in 2017:
Only one or two insurance companies will sell coverage in 2017 in the Illinois health marketplace established by the Affordable Care Act in 75 percent of the state's counties, the Illinois Department of Insurance said.
According to the state agency, Blue Cross Blue Shield will be the only insurer selling policies in the marketplace in seven counties — Madison, St. Clair, Monroe, McHenry, Lake, Kendall and Grundy — the Associated Press reports.
In Illinois, four insurers have exited or folded, leaving five companies in operation, according to the news agency. Insurers didn't get the payments from the federal government they were counting on, and sicker patients and higher prescription costs contributed to insurers' losses, Illinois Department of Insurance Acting Director Anne Melissa Dowling told the AP.
Some 70,000 Illinois residents who were covered by marketplace plans will need to enroll in new health plans next year because their carrier has withdrawn from the market, according to the news agency.
The argument has boiled down to whether or not private companies should be required to take patients with pre-existing conditions, whether states can be trusted to appropriately distribute federal funds, whether states can wean themselves off federal funding and whether Planned Parenthood should continue to be paid for with federal tax dollars.
UPDATE: The race for governor is now ratcheting up the Left's outrage. State Senator Daniel Biss posted this meme Saturday afternoon:
Moral values is important.
Carl Lambrecht