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1 | AN ACT to create the Health Care Justice Act.
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2 | Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, | ||||||
3 | represented in the General Assembly:
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4 | Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Health | ||||||
5 | Care
Justice Act.
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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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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:
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28 | (1) provides access to a full range of preventive, | ||||||
29 | acute, and
long-term health care services;
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30 | (2) maintains and improves the quality of health care |
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1 | services offered
to Illinois residents;
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2 | (3) provides portability of coverage, regardless of | ||||||
3 | employment status;
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4 | (4) provides core benefits for all Illinois residents;
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5 | (5) encourages regional and local consumer | ||||||
6 | participation;
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7 | (6) contains cost-containment measures;
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8 | (7) provides a mechanism for reviewing and | ||||||
9 | implementing multiple
approaches to preventive medicine | ||||||
10 | based on new technologies; and
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11 | (8) promotes affordable coverage options for the small | ||||||
12 | business market.
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13 | Section 20. Adequate Health Care Task Force.
There is | ||||||
14 | created an Adequate Health Care Task Force. The Task Force
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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.
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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:
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9 | (1) an integrated system or systems of health care | ||||||
10 | delivery;
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11 | (2) incentives to be used to contain costs;
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12 | (3) core benefits that would be provided under each | ||||||
13 | type of plan;
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14 | (4) reimbursement mechanisms for health care | ||||||
15 | providers;
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16 | (5) administrative efficiencies;
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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;
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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;
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25 | (8) appropriate reallocation of existing health care | ||||||
26 | resources;
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27 | (9) equitable financing of each proposal; and
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28 | (10) recommendations concerning the delivery of | ||||||
29 | long-term care services,
including:
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30 | (A) those currently covered under Title XIX of the | ||||||
31 | Social Security
Act;
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32 | (B) recommendations on potential cost sharing | ||||||
33 | arrangements for
long-term care services and the | ||||||
34 | phasing in of such arrangements over
time;
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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;
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3 | (E) the possibility of using independent financing | ||||||
4 | for the provision of
long-term care services; and
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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.
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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.
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14 | Section 99. This Act takes effect July 1, 2004.
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