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1     AN ACT to create the Health Care Justice Act.
 
2     Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
3 represented in the General Assembly:
 
4     Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Health
5 Care Justice Act.
 
6     Section 5. Legislative findings. The General Assembly
7 recognizes that the U.S. census reported that on any given day
8 an estimated 1,800,000 Illinoisans are without health
9 insurance, and according to a March 2003 Robert Wood Johnson
10 study, nearly 30% of the non-elderly Illinois population
11 (3,122,000) during all or a large part of 2001 or 2002 were
12 uninsured; a growing number of Illinoisans are under-insured,
13 the consumer's share of the cost of health insurance is
14 growing, coverage in benefit packages is decreasing, and record
15 numbers of consumer complaints are lodged against managed care
16 companies regarding access to necessary health care services.
17 The General Assembly believes that the State must work to
18 assure access to quality health care for all residents of
19 Illinois, and at the same time, the State must contain health
20 care costs while maintaining and improving the quality of
21 health care.
 
22     Section 10. Policy. It is a policy goal of the State of
23 Illinois to insure that all residents have access to quality
24 health care at costs that are affordable.
 
25     Section 15. Health care access plan. On or before July 1,
26 2007, the State of Illinois is strongly encouraged to implement
27 a health care access plan that does the following:
28         (1) provides access to a full range of preventive,
29     acute, and long-term health care services;
30         (2) maintains and improves the quality of health care

 

 

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1     services offered to Illinois residents;
2         (3) provides portability of coverage, regardless of
3     employment status;
4         (4) provides core benefits for all Illinois residents;
5         (5) encourages regional and local consumer
6     participation;
7         (6) contains cost-containment measures;
8         (7) provides a mechanism for reviewing and
9     implementing multiple approaches to preventive medicine
10     based on new technologies; and
11         (8) promotes affordable coverage options for the small
12     business market.
 
13     Section 20. Adequate Health Care Task Force. There is
14 created an Adequate Health Care Task Force. The Task Force
15 shall consist of 29 voting members appointed as follows: 5
16 shall be appointed by the Governor; 6 shall be appointed by the
17 President of the Senate, 6 shall be appointed by the Minority
18 Leader of the Senate, 6 shall be appointed by the Speaker of
19 the House of Representatives, and 6 shall be appointed by the
20 Minority Leader of the House of Representatives. The Task Force
21 shall have a chairman and a vice-chairman who shall be elected
22 by the voting members at the first meeting of the Task Force.
23 The Director of Public Health or his or her designee, the
24 Director of Aging or his or her designee, the Director of
25 Public Aid or his or her designee, the Director of Insurance or
26 his or her designee, and the Secretary of Human Services or his
27 or her designee shall represent their respective departments
28 and shall be invited to attend Task Force meetings, but shall
29 not be members of the Task Force. The members of the Task Force
30 shall be appointed within 30 days after the effective date of
31 this Act. The departments of State government represented on
32 the Task Force shall work cooperatively to provide
33 administrative support for the Task Force; the Department of
34 Public Health shall be the primary agency in providing that
35 administrative support.
 

 

 

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1     Section 25. Public hearings.
2     (a) The Task Force shall seek public input on the
3 development of the health care access plan by holding a public
4 hearing in each Illinois congressional district starting no
5 later than January 1, 2005 and ending on November 30, 2005.
6 Each State Representative and State Senator located in each
7 such congressional district shall be invited to participate in
8 the hearing in that district and help to gather input from
9 interested parties. A web site for the Task Force shall be
10 developed and linked to the Governor's home page for input to
11 be provided and to keep the public informed. The Task Force's
12 web site shall be specifically highlighted and have independent
13 pages reporting all activities and linkages for people to
14 access. Minutes from all of the Task Force's meetings shall be
15 available on the web site, and a hard copy of this information
16 shall also be made available for those persons without access
17 to the Task Force's web site. The Task Force may also consult
18 with health care providers, health care consumers, and other
19 appropriate individuals and organizations to assist in the
20 development of the health care access plan.
21     (b) Not later than September 1, 2004, the Illinois
22 Department of Public Health, subject to appropriation or the
23 availability of other funds for such purposes and using a
24 public request for proposals process, shall contract with an
25 independent research entity experienced in assessing health
26 care reforms, health care financing, and health care delivery
27 models. Upon the request of at least one-fourth of the Task
28 Force members, the research entity shall be available to the
29 Task Force for the purpose of assessing financial costs and the
30 different health care models being discussed. All inquiries
31 made by Task Force members to the independent research entity
32 shall be made available on the Task Force's web site.
 
33     Section 30. Final report. No later than March 15, 2006, the
34 Task Force shall submit its final report on the health care

 

 

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1 access plan to the General Assembly and the Governor. The final
2 report may recommend a combination of more than one type of
3 plan and alternative methods of funding the plan. The final
4 report by the Task Force shall make recommendations for a
5 health care access plan or plans that would provide access to a
6 full range of preventive, acute, and long-term health care
7 services to residents of the State of Illinois by July 1, 2007,
8 including:
9         (1) an integrated system or systems of health care
10     delivery;
11         (2) incentives to be used to contain costs;
12         (3) core benefits that would be provided under each
13     type of plan;
14         (4) reimbursement mechanisms for health care
15     providers;
16         (5) administrative efficiencies;
17         (6) mechanisms for generating spending priorities
18     based on multidisciplinary standards of care established
19     by verifiable replicated research studies demonstrating
20     quality and cost effectiveness of interventions,
21     providers, and facilities;
22         (7) methods for reducing the cost of prescription drugs
23     both as part of, and as separate from, the health care
24     access plan;
25         (8) appropriate reallocation of existing health care
26     resources;
27         (9) equitable financing of each proposal; and
28         (10) recommendations concerning the delivery of
29     long-term care services, including:
30             (A) those currently covered under Title XIX of the
31         Social Security Act;
32             (B) recommendations on potential cost sharing
33         arrangements for long-term care services and the
34         phasing in of such arrangements over time;
35             (C) consideration of the potential for utilizing
36         informal care-giving by friends and family members;

 

 

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1             (D) recommendations on cost-containment strategies
2         for long-term care services;
3             (E) the possibility of using independent financing
4         for the provision of long-term care services; and
5             (F) the projected cost to the State of Illinois
6         over the next 20 years if no changes were made in the
7         present system of delivering and paying for long-term
8         care services.
 
9     Section 35. Further legislative action. No later than
10 December 31, 2006, the General Assembly is strongly encouraged
11 to vote on legislation that either enacts the Task Force's
12 recommendation or provides for another health care access plan
13 that meets the criteria set forth in Section 15.
 
14     Section 99. This Act takes effect July 1, 2004.