State of Illinois' Financial Distress Means Fewer Doctors

State of Illinois' Financial Distress Means Fewer Doctors

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From Re-Boot Illinois (More Cool Stuff):

"The share of doctors willing to accept new Medicaid patients varies widely across the 50 states, according to a recent study from the National Center for Health Statistics.

Not surprisingly, states with higher fiscal strains also are states where doctors are less willing to serve Medicaid patients.  Doctors are paid lower and slower in fiscally challenged states.

The chart (below) shows where Illinois stands compared to the U.S. average on the Truth In Accounting “Taxpayer Burden” measure of state government debt burden and the share of doctors accepting new Medicaid patients.

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Illinois ranks near the top of the list on how high its Taxpayer Burden is, and near the bottom of the barrel in terms of doctor willingness to accept new Medicaid patients."

Why?

From Illinois Statehouse New January 2012:

"SPRINGFIELD — Illinois’ difficulties reining in its pension costs are expected to pale in comparison to its efforts to control Medicaid, the state’s other big expense.  A report released from the Civic Federation, a Chicago-based nonpartisan policy group that focuses on state spending, predicts Illinois' Medicaid costs will skyrocket over the next five years."

Continued...

""What is most frightening is that even after the income tax, the state was not able to pass a budget to fully fund Medicaid," said Lawrence Msall - Civic Federation President, referring to a 67 percent personal income tax increase and a 48 percent corporate income tax increase in January 2011. 

But even with that additional revenue, Illinois lawmakers still had to pay more than $1 billion in 2011 Medicaid bills. 

The Civic Federation report paints a grim picture for Medicaid spending:

• Illinois is on pace to spend a total of nearly $14 billion on Medicaid in 2012.
• Illinois' Medicaid costs are expected to increase 41 percent over the next five years.""

Continued...

"Illinois will see as many as 296,000 new people enroll in Medicaid once the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act takes effect in 2014." [But we can't afford it!!!!!!]

"Msall added that Medicaid spending is the biggest single cost for state government. The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services expects to spend a total of $14 billion on Medicaid in 2012, that includes both state and federal dollars."

Consider this... From Illinois Policy Institute, May of 2013:

"The federal government is unlikely to fulfill its commitment to Illinois. Federal Medicaid spending already represents one-fourth of the federal deficit and is expected to more than double in the next decade. This explains why President Barack Obama's last three budgets have proposed shifting more of these costs to state governments and why he has included these cost-shift proposals in debt ceiling and fiscal cliff negotiations. One of the two trustees, Obama appointed to oversee Medicare, warned states that it was a “near certainty” that federal support for Medicaid will be cut in future years."

Illinois Policy Institute/Illinois Review Reports in April 2013:

"If Illinois has the same experiences as other states, the [proposed Medicaid] expansion would cost state and federal taxpayers between $6.3 billion and $16.9 billion more than the Quinn administration projects between 2014 and 2020, even if all of their other assumptions are correct."

Illinois Issues Reports:

"But with reforms slow to get off the ground and a menu of possible cuts slowly beginning to surface, lawmakers are now forced to somehow tame the Medicaid beast before it reaches $21 billion in unpaid bills by 2017, according to a recent projection by the Civic Federation."

Continued...

"Medicaid is a health care program for the poor that offers a variety of services. It is funded by both the state and federal governments. With the 2009 federal stimulus package, the federal government picked up 62 cents of every dollar Illinois spent on Medicaid costs, but that program expired last June, and now the split is again 50-50."