Governor Blagojevich and the State of Illinois Take Action Against Our Healthcare Crisis

Governor Rod R. Blagojevich's top priority is to make affordable and quality healthcare available to everyone in the State of Illinois. Illinois Covered (http://www.illinoiscovered.com/) is a plan of action that was created by Gov. Blagojevich to address and fix the issue of the raising number of people who are uninsured in our nation. In Illinois alone, there are 1.4 million people that have no insurance and about 47 million people nationwide, according to the Illinois Covered website.

The issue is not only the uninsured. There are many people with private insurance that are struggling to pay for the raising costs of healthcare. Many businesses, especially small businesses, are struggling as well. The health insurance premiums for small businesses has increased so much that many small businesses can't afford to offer health insurance anymore.

So far Gov. Blagojevich has implemented the expansion of existing programs such as the FamilyCare Program (http://www.familycareillinois.com/), Health Benefits for Workers with Disabilities (http://www.hbwdillinois.com/), AllKids Healthcare Program (http://www.allkids.com/), and the Illinois Breast and Cervical Cancer Program (http://cancerscreening.illinois.gov/).

Doctor's visits, emergency and hospital care, specialty medical services, prescriptions and dental care are just some of the services covered under both the FamilyCare and AllKids programs. FamilyCare provides affordable healthcare insurance coverage to parents or relatives caring for children in place of their parents and to those who are living with their children up to the age of 18 years old. The AllKids healthcare program provides affordable healthcare insurance coverage to every child in the state of Illinois regardless of the amount of family income or health condition.

The Health Benefits for Workers with Disabilities program helps those with disabilities return to work and keep their Medicaid health insurance. The Illinois Breast and Cervical Cancer Program provides screening and treatment to the uninsured. (Check the appropriate websites for qualifications and applications for the programs.)

The Illinois Covered plan has also implemented the Assist and Rebate programs. The Illinois Covered Assist program provides access to care for those adults that are uninsured and have a very low income. The Rebate program provides rebates to families to help pay for their health insurance premiums. There are also a number of other components to the Illinois Covered plan that are in the works

Not only does the State of Illinois have a health insurance program for children 18 years old or younger but all other states in the U.S. does as well. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services - Insure Kid's Now website http://www.insurekidsnow.gov/ has information about the insurance programs in all states.