Health News
While Congress has spent time debating repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), many policymakers in the states are focused on moving forward and evaluating how best to take advantage of the ACA to lower health care costs.
In Illinois, Governor Quinn?s Health Care Reform Implementation Council released initial recommendations on January 31st, a first step in indentifying policies Illinois can take to ensure the ACA delivers on the promise of increased access to high quality, cost-effective health care for all Illinoisans.
It?s a good thing that Illinois is looking forward rather than rehashing the partisan fights we saw in Washington D.C. last year. There are real-world consequences that repeal or roll-back of the ACA?s key initiatives would have on consumers and small businesses.
Illinois PIRG explored these issues in a recent report that draws on official research and statistics, and projections from independent sources.
Based on this analysis, repeal would strip tax credits from 159,900 Illinois small businesses. And over the longer term, the cost of offering employer-based health insurance could jump by more than $3000 a year over current law.
In today?s economy, the higher costs that would result from repeal are the last thing that Illinois consumers and businesses need.
As the Illinois Health Care Reform Implementation Council moves forward, it will be a forum for policymakers to work together to solve our health care problems and not get our state wrapped up in refighting last year?s Washington debate over health care.
Brian Imus
Illinois PIRG
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- Policy To The People - Illinois Policymakers Weigh In About Aca Implementation In Illinois
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- Affordable Care Act Anniversary
America's health care law, the Affordable Care Act, turns one year old on March 23rd. That's good news for Illinois' four-year-olds -- and forty-four-year-olds, and lots of other Illinoisans too. That's because the law imposes consumer...
Health News
To Repeal or Not to Repeal
While Congress has spent time debating repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), many policymakers in the states are focused on moving forward and evaluating how best to take advantage of the ACA to lower health care costs.
In Illinois, Governor Quinn?s Health Care Reform Implementation Council released initial recommendations on January 31st, a first step in indentifying policies Illinois can take to ensure the ACA delivers on the promise of increased access to high quality, cost-effective health care for all Illinoisans.
It?s a good thing that Illinois is looking forward rather than rehashing the partisan fights we saw in Washington D.C. last year. There are real-world consequences that repeal or roll-back of the ACA?s key initiatives would have on consumers and small businesses.
Illinois PIRG explored these issues in a recent report that draws on official research and statistics, and projections from independent sources.
Based on this analysis, repeal would strip tax credits from 159,900 Illinois small businesses. And over the longer term, the cost of offering employer-based health insurance could jump by more than $3000 a year over current law.
In today?s economy, the higher costs that would result from repeal are the last thing that Illinois consumers and businesses need.
As the Illinois Health Care Reform Implementation Council moves forward, it will be a forum for policymakers to work together to solve our health care problems and not get our state wrapped up in refighting last year?s Washington debate over health care.
Brian Imus
Illinois PIRG
- Making The Grade: A Scorecard For State Health Insurance Exchanges
According to the Illinois Department of Insurance, health insurance premiums have risen on average 181 percent since 2005. This could be the week action is taken in Illinois to fix our health insurance marketplace for Illinois families and small businesses....
- Policy To The People - Illinois Policymakers Weigh In About Aca Implementation In Illinois
Health care reform in Illinois may originate from the federal law, the Affordable Care Act, but it is up to each state to implement many pieces of the law. For that reason, we made Illinois' implementation of health care reform the focus of our latest...
- It?s Finally Happening
A legislative taskforce is working right now on ways to increase competition in the Illinois health insurance marketplace, and they?ll make recommendations by September 30th. Insurance lobbyists have come to Springfield to prevent anything that might...
- Effective Exchange Key To Lower Health Insurance Costs For Illinois Families
It?s hard not to notice the out-of-control health insurance cost increases in recent years. Three out of every four individual-market policyholders saw a premium increase from early 2009 to early 2010. Small businesses are particularly hard hit....
- Affordable Care Act Anniversary
America's health care law, the Affordable Care Act, turns one year old on March 23rd. That's good news for Illinois' four-year-olds -- and forty-four-year-olds, and lots of other Illinoisans too. That's because the law imposes consumer...