SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – The goal of good quality, affordable health care for all Illinoisans will be difficult to achieve if state officials don't first close a budget loophole that causes current programs to be underfunded by $2 billion or more each year, Comptroller Dan Hynes said today.

"I believe all Illinoisans should have access to good quality, affordable health care," Hynes said. "I applaud the Governor for recognizing that need and proposing a plan to meet it. For decades the state has underfunded health care. This practice creates unacceptable delays in payments for services and jeopardizes the financial stability of the health care system. By the Governor's own projections, his proposal would potentially add another $4 billion in costs by Fiscal 2011 to the state's health care system, which already is underfunded by $2 billion this fiscal year."

Hynes said the new health care initiative coupled with the state's chronic underfunding of the Medicaid program means it is more critical than ever before for state policy makers to heed his call for balanced budget and Medicaid funding reforms. The underfunding, he said, has resulted in a less than ideal state-funded health care system for the more than 2 million low-income children, parents, elderly and disabled served by the program. Many health care providers no longer take Medicaid patients or severely limit their participation in the program because they no longer can afford to wait as long as six months to be paid for their services.

"Patients can't get care, wait unreasonably long for treatment or they must travel farther and farther away from home to receive care because doctors, hospitals, nursing homes and pharmacies are shutting down or refusing to take new Medicaid patients," Hynes said. "If another 1.4 million uninsured people are added to the system without fixing the system we have, the entire program could be endangered."

Hynes, who has raised concerns about the late bill payments for medical care since 1999, called for an end to the program's chronic underfunding. Hynes' legislation (HB3397), sponsored by Rep. William "Will" Davis of Homewood, Rep. David Miller of Calumet City and Rep. Lisa Dugan of Bradley, effectively eliminates the budgetary loophole that permits the practice and requires that all medical services provided in a given year be reimbursed within four months of that fiscal year's end. Specifically, medical payment deferments would be prohibited beginning with the close of Fiscal Year 2009 on June 30, 2009, and any bills outstanding for that fiscal year would have to be paid by Oct. 31 with FY09 funds.

"Despite strong revenue growth, the state has not adequately funded health care programs," Hynes said. "This practice is wrong and impacts directly or indirectly the medical services all Illinoisans receive and negatively impacts the state's ability to pay the vendors on time who provide services to the state."

Davis said the proposal would result in more truthful budgeting practices by the state.

"We need to ensure that our constituents have good quality medical care, but we also need to make hard choices when it comes to the rest of the budget to ensure that we don't continue to spend more money than we take in," Davis said. "The state has been living off credit cards and good will and both have run out. It doesn't do any of our constituents any good – patients or health care providers – to continue this way."

Miller, a dentist, knows first hand the challenges of providing Medicaid services.

"Health care providers take up this field of work because they care about people. They want to provide quality health care and they withdraw from the program with a heavy heart because they know what it means to the people they serve," Miller said. "But few of us have the luxury of being able to work for free and there comes a point when we no longer can front the state's debt and keep our businesses afloat."

The state delayed paying for $2.3 billion worth of medical services last fiscal year, which also created significant cash flow problems for state government. That number could grow substantially under the program expansion envisioned by the Governor if the loophole is not closed. Hynes noted that currently $1.4 billion of the state's bills await payment with over $1 billion more held at the agencies responsible for health care. Last year's late payments represented about 30 percent of the money budgeted for health care costs.

Hynes pointed to a series of news articles by reporter Stephanie Sievers of the Small Newspaper Group which vividly document the frustrations patients and health care providers alike have with the state health care system. He noted that doctors who opt out of the program do so reluctantly.

"These are health care providers that deliver critical services to the most vulnerable among us, yet they struggle every day just to make payroll and keep the lights on. They've been forced to borrow money to make ends meet because the state takes months and months to reimburse them for goods and services. For some, loans are no longer an option because they have exhausted their lines of credit. And when they close their doors, it's not just Medicaid patients who suffer, but everyone they serve."

Alicia Hansel of Bradley, a Medicaid patient since November, was one of several individuals who traveled to Springfield to share their experiences. She said she found only one general practitioner at one clinic in Kankakee County willing to accept new Medicaid patients. For any other services, she said she and her family still must seek treatment at a hospital emergency room. Hansel said she received a follow-up list of primary care doctors from the state agency responsible for the Medicaid program, but when she contacted them none would accept new Medicaid patients.

Dugan, who brought Hansel to Springfield so she could tell her story, said, "Being faced with an illness can take an emotional as well as a physical toll. Our constituents should not have to suffer even more because the state refuses to pay its bills on time."