Judge orders Illinois to boost Medicaid bill payments
Source: Reuters
A U.S. judge on Friday dealt a major financial blow to Illinois by ordering the cash-strapped state to pay $586 million a month to Medicaid providers to ensure continued medical care for poor and disabled residents.
The order by Judge Joan Lefkow also stipulated that Illinois send $2 billion to Medicaid providers during the fiscal year that starts on Saturday to pay down the existing $3.1 billion backlog of unpaid bills.
Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza, whose office pays the state's bills, said the ruling "takes the states finances from horrific to catastrophic" and called on state lawmakers to immediately pass a budget.
"Payments to the states pension funds; state payroll including legislator pay; general state aid to schools and payments to local governments in some combination will likely have to be cut," she said in a statement. "Payments to the states bond-holders will continue uninterrupted."
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POLITICS | Fri Jun 30, 2017 | 8:41pm EDT
By Karen Pierog and Dave McKinney | CHICAGO
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-illinois-budget-medicaid-idUSKBN19L310?il=0
murielm99
(30,755 posts)She is a Clinton employee. Her family was murdered. She seems to get the high profile controversial cases.
beachbum bob
(10,437 posts)send them to jail for a few weeks and keep doing so until Illinois has a budget
broadcaster90210
(333 posts)Governor was a good idea?
NobodyHere
(2,810 posts)So now who gets the haircut?
Yupster
(14,308 posts)If they had the money they wouldn't be in this mess to begin with.