July 30, 2010
To the Honorable Members of the Illinois Senate,
96th General Assembly:
In
accordance with Article IV, Section 9(e) of the Illinois Constitution, I hereby
return Senate Bill 3047 with specific recommendations for change.
I
commend the sponsors for their hard work on this bill on behalf of the nearly
two million Illinoisans without access to affordable health care coverage.
This bill would create a Health Care Justice Implementation Task Force to
monitor the implementation of the federal Affordable Care Act and make
recommendations regarding further reforms. The State of Illinois is committed
to implementing the Affordable Care Act in a manner that will ensure we
are improving the health of residents by increasing citizen access to health
care, reducing costs and improving the quality and effectiveness of health
care.
Though
I recognize the importance of establishing a Task Force of stakeholders to
monitor implementation, I am recommending changes to Senate Bill 3047 to ensure
the Task Force’s structure and timeline is consistent with the Administration’s
efforts and the Affordable Care Act’s timeline for implementation, given
several meaningful reforms will not become effective until 2014. As Governor, I
am issuing an Executive Order today to create The Illinois Health Care Reform
Implementation Council (“Council”) comprised of key State agencies and offices
to recommend to me what changes need to be made to fully implement the Affordable
Care Act. I am confident my recommended changes will help us all achieve
our shared goal of providing quality, affordable health care for all Illinois
residents.
Therefore,
pursuant to Article IV, Section 9(e) of the Illinois Constitution of 1970, I
hereby return Senate Bill 3047, entitled “AN ACT concerning health care.” with
the following specific recommendations for change:
on page 2, line 13 by deleting “September
1, 2010” and inserting “September 1, 2011”; and
on page 4, by replacing lines 7
through 12 with the following:
“voting members appointed as
follows: 13 5 shall be appointed by the Governor; 4 6 shall
be appointed by the President of the Senate, 4 6 shall be
appointed by the Minority Leader of the Senate, 4 6 shall be
appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and 4 6
shall be appointed by the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives. The
Task Force shall”; and
on page 4, by replacing lines 21
through 25 with the following:
“Force meetings, but shall not be
members of the Task Force. The terms of all serving members shall end on the
effective date of this amendatory Act of the 96th General Assembly. The
members of the Task Force shall be appointed within 60 30 days
after the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 96th General
Assembly and hold its first meeting within 30 days thereafter. The
departments of State government represented on”; and
on page 5, by replacing lines 2
through 4 with the following:
“administrative support for the
Task Force; the Department of Healthcare and Family Services and the Department
of Insurance Public Health shall be the primary agencies agency
in providing that administrative support, subject to appropriation.”;
and
on page 6, by replacing lines 24
and 25 with the following:
“Section 99. Effective
date. This Act takes effect July 1, 2011.”.
With these changes, Senate Bill 3047 will have my
approval. I respectfully request your concurrence.
Sincerely,
Pat Quinn
Governor
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