Legislators seek explanation from governor on insurance

Sat, 05/07/2011 - 6:00am | Debra Pressey, staff writer,

SPRINGFIELD — Dozens of state senators have sent a letter to Gov. Pat Quinn and Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services Director Julie Hamos, saying insurance selections for state employees seem to target downstate workers to make sacrifices.

"Chicago area state employees would see no change, but 137,000 of our constituents will have provider and health plan relationships disrupted and experience significant cost increases," says the letter from 34 state legislators.

The letter requests detailed financial information on the basis for the cost savings the agency has made of around $100 million a year for the insurance selections that have been made and for time to review the details before final selections are made.

The claims "appear to be based on hypothetical assumptions and not reality," the letter states.

Categories (4):News, Health Care, Politics and Government, Health

Location (30):Champaign County, Champaign, Local, Urbana, Allerton, Bondville, Broadlands, Dewey, Fisher, Foosland, Gifford, Homer, Ivesdale, Longview, Ludlow, Mahomet, Ogden, Penfield, Pesotum, Philo, Rantoul, Royal, Sadorus, Saint Joseph, Savoy, Seymour, Sidney, Thomasboro, Tolono, White Heath

Comments

News-Gazette.com embraces discussion of both community and world issues. We welcome you to contribute your ideas, opinions and comments, but we ask that you avoid personal attacks, vulgarity and hate speech. We reserve the right to remove any comment at our discretion, and we will block repeat offenders' accounts. To post comments, you must first be a registered user, and your username will appear with any comment you post. Happy posting.

kiel wrote on May 07, 2011 at 9:05 am

I agree with the letter completely. It could have been proof-read better, though. This plan is ill-conceived and, from the sounds of it, does not even follow state-mandated procedures.