Illinois General Assembly to Consider Two Initiatives That Would Provide Health Care Coverage for More Low-Income Women

During this legislative session, the Illinois General Assembly will consider two separate health insurance bills that would increase the number of low-income women eligible for government-funded health care coverage.

The Illinois Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Act (House Bill 398).

A new federal law, the Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment Act of 2000, authorizes the expenditure of $990 million over 10 years for a new health coverage option for low-income (under 200 percent of poverty), uninsured women (under age 65) with breast or cervical cancer who have been screened by the Centers for Disease Control’s Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program. Such women may receive full Medicaid coverage from the first abnormal screening test through their last follow-up treatment. Illinois’s screening program, the Illinois Breast and Cervical Cancer Program (IBCCP), has diagnosed 133 cases of breast cancer and 9 of cervical cancer in the last five years.

States will have to adopt a state plan and provide funding in order to trigger the federal funds made available by the act. States that opt to fund this program will receive enhanced federal matching funds. Illinois would have to pay only 35 percent of the total cost of coverage for this new policy, a net cost of about $700,000 to the state in the first year.

Lieutenant Governor Corinne Wood is leading the effort for adoption in Illinois. Representatives Elizabeth Coulson (R-Glenview) and David R. Leitch (R-Peoria) are the sponsors of H.B. 398, the Illinois Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Act, which would have Illinois adopt this health coverage option.

Illinois’s screening program (IBCCP) is available statewide. For information on the local contact in your area, call the Office of Women’s Health HelpLine, 888.522.1282. Contact the Office of Lieutenant Governor Wood, 800.843.5848, for more information about H.B. 398 or to express your support.

Family Care (House Bill 23).

The National Center on Poverty Law and other advocacy groups are working to create a state-sponsored health insurance program for the parents of children covered under the existing KidCare program, called Family Care. Representatives Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago), David R. Leitch (R-Peoria), Barbara Flynn Currie (D-Chicago), Elizabeth Coulson (R-Glenview), and Mary E. Flowers (D-Chicago) are the sponsors of House Bill 23, the Family Care bill.

As many as 200,000 parents in Illinois have no insurance. These are working people with incomes between $8,500 and $31,000 (50 percent to 185 percent of the poverty level for a family of four). These parents may be part-time workers or full-time workers at relatively low pay. They may have access to employer-provided coverage but cannot afford the premium. Or their employer may not provide health insurance at all.

For more information about Family Care and a sample letter to send to Governor Ryan and your state legislators in support of Family Care, click here. Or contact John Bouman, National Center on Poverty Law, 312.263.3830 ext. 250.

You may also contact Wendy Pollack, 312.263.3830 ext. 238 or for more information about either of these initiatives.