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Public Act 093-0973
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| HB2268 Enrolled |
LRB093 06262 JLS 10988 b |
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AN ACT to create the Health Care Justice Act.
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Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, |
represented in the General Assembly:
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Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Health |
Care
Justice Act.
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Section 5. Legislative findings. The General Assembly |
recognizes that the
U.S. census reported that on any given day |
an
estimated
1,800,000 Illinoisans are without health |
insurance,
and according to a March 2003 Robert Wood Johnson |
study, nearly 30% of the
non-elderly Illinois population |
(3,122,000) during all or a large part of 2001 or 2002 were
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uninsured;
a growing number of
Illinoisans are under-insured, |
the consumer's share of the cost of health
insurance is |
growing, coverage in benefit packages is decreasing, and
record |
numbers of consumer complaints are lodged against managed care
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companies regarding access to necessary health care services. |
The
General Assembly believes that the State must work to |
assure access to
quality health care for all residents of |
Illinois, and at the same time, the
State must contain health |
care costs while maintaining and improving the
quality of |
health care.
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Section 10. Policy. It is a policy goal of the State of |
Illinois to insure
that all residents
have access to quality |
health care at costs that are affordable.
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Section 15. Health care access plan. On or before July 1, |
2007, the
State of
Illinois is strongly encouraged to implement |
a health care access plan that does the
following:
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(1) provides access to a full range of preventive, |
acute, and
long-term health care services;
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(2) maintains and improves the quality of health care |
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services offered
to Illinois residents;
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(3) provides portability of coverage, regardless of |
employment status;
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(4) provides core benefits for all Illinois residents;
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(5) encourages regional and local consumer |
participation;
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(6) contains cost-containment measures;
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(7) provides a mechanism for reviewing and |
implementing multiple
approaches to preventive medicine |
based on new technologies; and
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(8) promotes affordable coverage options for the small |
business market.
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Section 20. Adequate Health Care Task Force.
There is |
created an Adequate Health Care Task Force. The Task Force
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shall consist of 29 voting members appointed as follows: 5 |
shall be appointed by the Governor; 6 shall be appointed by the |
President of the Senate,
6 shall be appointed by the Minority |
Leader of the Senate, 6 shall be
appointed by the Speaker of |
the House of Representatives, and 6 shall be
appointed by the |
Minority Leader of the House of Representatives. The Task Force |
shall have a chairman and a vice-chairman who
shall be elected |
by the voting members at the first meeting
of the Task Force. |
The Director of Public
Health or his or her designee, the |
Director of Aging or his or
her designee, the Director of |
Public Aid or his or her
designee, the Director of Insurance or |
his or her designee, and
the Secretary of Human Services or his |
or her designee shall represent their respective departments |
and shall be invited to attend Task Force meetings, but shall |
not be members of the Task Force. The members of the Task Force |
shall be appointed
within 30 days after the effective date of |
this Act. The departments of State
government represented on
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the Task Force shall work cooperatively to provide |
administrative
support for the Task Force; the Department of |
Public Health shall be the
primary agency in providing that |
administrative support.
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Section 25. Public hearings.
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(a) The Task Force shall seek public
input on the |
development of the health care access plan by holding
a public |
hearing in each Illinois congressional district starting no |
later than January 1, 2005 and
ending on November 30, 2005. |
Each State Representative and State Senator
located in
each |
such congressional district shall be invited to participate in
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the hearing in that district
and help to gather input from |
interested parties. A web site for the Task Force shall be |
developed and
linked to
the Governor's home page for input to |
be
provided and to keep the public informed. The Task Force's |
web site shall be
specifically highlighted and have independent |
pages reporting all activities
and linkages
for people to |
access. Minutes from all of the Task Force's meetings shall be
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available on
the web site, and a hard copy of this information |
shall also be made available
for those
persons without access |
to the Task Force's web site.
The Task Force may also consult |
with
health care providers, health care consumers, and other |
appropriate
individuals and organizations to assist in the |
development of the
health care access plan.
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(b) Not later than September 1, 2004, the Illinois |
Department of Public
Health,
subject to appropriation or the |
availability of other funds for such purposes
and using a |
public request for proposals process, shall
contract with an
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independent research entity experienced in assessing health |
care reforms,
health care financing, and health care delivery |
models. Upon the request of at
least one-fourth of the Task |
Force members, the research entity
shall be
available to the |
Task Force for the purpose of assessing financial costs and
the |
different
health care models being discussed. All inquiries |
made by Task Force members to
the
independent research entity |
shall be made available on the Task Force's web
site.
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Section 30. Final report.
No later than March 15, 2006, the |
Task Force shall submit its final report
on the health care |
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access plan to the General Assembly and the
Governor. The final |
report may recommend a combination of more than one type
of |
plan
and alternative methods of funding the plan. The final |
report by the
Task Force
shall make
recommendations for a |
health care access plan or plans
that would
provide access to a |
full
range of preventive, acute, and long-term health care |
services to residents
of the State of Illinois by July 1, 2007, |
including:
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(1) an integrated system or systems of health care |
delivery;
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(2) incentives to be used to contain costs;
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(3) core benefits that would be provided under each |
type of plan;
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(4) reimbursement mechanisms for health care |
providers;
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(5) administrative efficiencies;
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(6) mechanisms for generating spending priorities |
based on
multidisciplinary standards of care established |
by verifiable replicated
research studies demonstrating |
quality and cost effectiveness of
interventions, |
providers, and facilities;
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(7) methods for reducing the cost of prescription drugs |
both as part of,
and as
separate from, the health care |
access plan;
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(8) appropriate reallocation of existing health care |
resources;
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(9) equitable financing of each proposal; and
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(10) recommendations concerning the delivery of |
long-term care services,
including:
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(A) those currently covered under Title XIX of the |
Social Security
Act;
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(B) recommendations on potential cost sharing |
arrangements for
long-term care services and the |
phasing in of such arrangements over
time;
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(C) consideration of the potential for utilizing |
informal care-giving by
friends and family members;
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(D) recommendations on cost-containment strategies |
for long-term
care services;
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(E) the possibility of using independent financing |
for the provision of
long-term care services; and
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(F) the projected cost to the State of Illinois |
over the next 20 years
if
no changes were made in the |
present system of delivering and paying
for long-term |
care services.
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Section 35. Further legislative action. No later than |
December 31, 2006, the General Assembly is strongly encouraged |
to vote on
legislation that either enacts the Task Force's |
recommendation or provides for
another
health care access plan |
that meets the criteria set forth in Section 15.
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Section 99. This Act takes effect July 1, 2004.
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