CARTERVILLE -- Comptroller Dan Hynes kicked off a statewide series of town hall meetings today aimed at highlighting the problems Medicaid recipients have getting access to quality health and dental care.

The meetings will feature Medicaid recipients describing to Hynes and local lawmakers the hurdles they must overcome to find care for themselves and their children and how they are often refused care because they are on Medicaid. The Comptroller's Office conducted a survey this past summer of Medicaid recipients across Illinois, and of the 3,500 people who responded, 70 percent said they had difficulty finding a local doctor or dentist.

"As our survey dramatically demonstrated, whole parts of the state are now medically underserved because the doctors who are there can't afford to treat Medicaid recipients," said Hynes. "The purpose here is to use the facts gathered at these meetings to spur legislative action that will make it easier for Medicaid recipients to obtain access to the quality health care they have been promised."

Hynes, who held the first meeting in Carterville, will conduct similar meetings throughout the state during the next month to highlight the widespread magnitude of the problem. Over the past six years, Hynes has repeatedly charged that the state is mismanaging the Medicaid system, principally by delaying payments for health care in order to hide the true cost of that care.

"The result is that dedicated health care professionals wait many months for reimbursement by the state, and some are forced to borrow money just to stay afloat," said Hynes. "That, in combination with low reimbursement rates, has caused many providers to simply stop serving Medicaid clientele. That is the root of the problem and the reason these recipients are here today."

Survey participants, from Chicago to Carbondale from Effingham to East Moline, shared their experiences. Most of them expressed despair, frustration and anger about being unable to find a local doctor to treat their health care needs, even though they had a medical card provided by the state. The stories included a woman who was forced to travel from Southern Illinois to Chicago to obtain dental services; a mother who was unable to find a specialist willing to treat her special needs child; a patient whose doctor of thirty years dropped him because of his Medicaid status and countless families who said their only option for health care services was to go to an emergency room.

"It is clear from the responses we received that having a Medicaid card in Illinois doesn't even come close to having access to quality health care," Hynes said. "To the contrary, the current system is causing people of all ages to go untreated, to travel great distances just to receive basic care, and in some cases, to go deep into debt to pay for expensive services out of pocket."

Hynes has called on the General Assembly to pass his Health Access and Provider Fairness Initiative that would close a loophole that currently allows the state to annually delay up to $2 billion in Medicaid payments.

"Some of the most vulnerable Illinoisans are being denied service because of a broken health care system," Hynes concluded. "It is my hope that these meetings will put a human face on the problem and the kinds of reform that are desperately needed."

Hynes was joined at the meeting in Carterville by Sen. Gary Forby and State Representatives John Bradley and Brandon Phelps.