Washington Times
November 18, 2014
By Carla K. Johnson
Illinois lawmakers may have one more chance to approve a state-run health insurance marketplace and they are under pressure from an end-of-the-year deadline and pending court decision.
Governor Pat Quinn, who is scheduled to leave office in January, supports the idea and the Illinois Senate passed a bill last year. However disagreement remains over who should pay for the $50 million annual operate cost of the insurance exchange. The bill has to have a financing mechanism and should have bipartisan support so it is really important for Illinois to act now.
The high court is supposed to decide whether the wording of the Affordable Care Act limits insurance tax credits only to people who live in states that have set up their own insurance markets, which could cost thousands of middle-class Illinois residents valuable insurance subsidies. Sonya Schwartz of the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute, which has been following states’ implementation of the health law, believes Illinois residents will not “be quiet if they lost their subsidies”.
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