Illinois Voters See Health Care as a Top Priority Issue 
for the State Budget

(Chicago) – According to a recent poll, education and health care are the two top priorities for Illinois voters. The April 28 Zogby poll, conducted by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and KMOV-TV, asked 806 registered voters across the state to name their two top priorities for budgetary funding in the fiscal crunch. Eighty-five percent of those polled listed education as a top concern and 63.3 percent listed health care.

Despite Illinois voters’ overwhelming support for health care, Governor Ryan’s proposed budget threatens drastic cuts to social service programs and health care providers. Nursing homes in particular stand to bear a heavy blow. The budget calls for an 8.8 percent cut to Medicaid funding for nursing homes, totaling $171 million. Additionally, since the federal government matches 50 cents for each dollar of Medicaid funding, the state also risks losing an additional $85.5 million.

With Medicaid funds financing two-thirds of the state’s total nursing home expenses, such an extreme cut could force facilities to cut staff, decrease services or go bankrupt. "This shows that as a state, we’re not meeting our responsibilities to our mothers and fathers, and grandmothers and grandfathers," says Terrence Sullivan, executive director of the Illinois Council on Long Term Care. "Illinois already ranks 44^th in the nation in average Medicaid rate paid to nursing homes. Plus, average costs at nursing homes have risen 61 percent over the past eight years, while Medicaid rates have increased by only 37 percent. This cut will only make things worse."

According to a report prepared by Voices for Illinois Children, Illinois ranks 46^th in generating the general revenues that pay for education, public safety, human services and health care when measured against the personal income of the state's taxpayers. That means that the general fund that pays for the primary services and programs of this state, but not its roads and other bricks and mortar projects, is poorer than all but four states. And although Illinois does have relatively high property taxes, our state still manages to rank 49^th in the total state and local revenue that it generates, which includes property taxes and everything else, as a percent of the income of the state's taxpayers.

State government has a social responsibility to protect its most frail, particularly during difficult times. Other states have shown Illinois that with recession budgets, necessary revenue to support the elderly can be generated through cigarette taxes, casino taxes, income taxes, and even borrowing the money against cigarette settlement money. One other solution to avoid devastating cuts to Medicaid is to temporarily increase the provider license assessment. The federal government matches all monies paid out to Medicaid. Increasing the provider license assessment costs the state nothing and will also prevent the loss of needed Medicaid matching funds. Whatever the solution, every effort must be responsibly taken to protect our state's 50,000 nursing home residents on Medicaid -- the proposed $171 million cut will put these Illinois citizens in peril.

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The Illinois Council on Long Term Care is an association of nursing home professionals representing over 200 facilities employing 26,000 staff members who serve over 38,000 residents. More information about long term care issues can be found at the Council's web site www.nursinghome.org.