92_HR0427

                                               LRB9209118TAsb

 1                          HOUSE RESOLUTION

 2        WHEREAS, There are 1.7 million medically uninsured people
 3    in Illinois and approximately 85% of  them  are  children  or
 4    employed adults; and

 5        WHEREAS,   Lack   of   health   insurance   harms  worker
 6    productivity, creates financial stress  in  families,  denies
 7    access  to  primary  care,  and results in a greater need for
 8    more expensive acute health care; and

 9        WHEREAS,  Illinois  can   offer   health   insurance   to
10    approximately 200,000 people by expanding the Kidcare program
11    to cover the uninsured parents of children covered by Kidcare
12    or   Medicaid  (an  expansion  known  as  "Family  Care"  and
13    contained in House Bill 23); and

14        WHEREAS, Family Care would offer health insurance  either
15    through a subsidy to help employees pay their contribution to
16    premiums  for  employer-supported private health insurance or
17    through the State's medical assistance  program  (for  people
18    without access to employer-supported insurance); and

19        WHEREAS,  By obtaining a federal waiver, approving Family
20    Care, Illinois can access 65% federal matching funds  through
21    the  State  Children's  Health  Insurance  Program, a fund of
22    money that is earmarked for Illinois but distributed to other
23    states each year that Illinois continues to fail to  use  it;
24    therefore be it

25        RESOLVED,   BY   THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  OF  THE
26    NINETY-SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
27    the Illinois Department of  Public  Aid  immediately  seek  a
28    waiver  from  the  Health  Care  Financing Administration for
29    approval of  federal  matching  funds  for  the  Family  Care
30    program  and  that  funds  be  sought  for the State share of
31    Family Care so that the program can be implemented as soon as
 
                            -2-                LRB9209118TAsb
 1    practical after the waivers are obtained; and be it further

 2        RESOLVED, That a suitable  copy  of  this  resolution  be
 3    delivered to the Director of Public Aid.