Illinois lawmakers took another step this week to end the program offering health care coverage to Illinois residents without legal status in the United States.
The Legislature’s Joint Committee on Administrative Rules this week gave a green light to rules that will phase out the Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults program on July 1. The phaseout has been expected ever since Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker released a budget outline in February that did not include money for it.
But some lawmakers are quick to point out that the rules committee is just one part of the process — and hope to save the program.
“The sentiment that has been expressed to (the Latino) caucus is that if we can continue to find a way to work on an appropriation and on a policy proposal that makes sense, that we still have a path forward,” said state Sen. Graciela Guzman, D-Chicago.
The program mainly serves residents between the ages of 42 and 64 who aren’t eligible for traditional health care coverage, like Medicaid, due to their legal status. It was launched as an expansion to the Health Benefits for Immigrant Seniors program that covers people over the age of 65.
As of March, there were about 31,000 people enrolled in the program.
Enrollment in the program was paused in July 2023 as costs quickly exceeded expectations. An audit released by Illinois Auditor General Frank Mautino in February indicated the program cost the state about $1.6 billion since last summer, which far outpaced original cost estimates.
“Many members in the General Assembly have been talking about different forms of revenue that we could propose, not just to help fund this program, but other priorities that we know are needed by working-class families here in the state of Illinois,” said Guzman.
State Rep. Norma Hernandez, D-Melrose Park, who chairs the House Latino Caucus, said she’s been in budget negotiations this week and sees a path forward — noting discussions on things like a tax on digital services, closing corporate tax loopholes and other ways to make more money she said “are not on the backs of working-class people.”
Packages like that, Guzman said, would help address multiple matters that she “[knows] are needed by working-class families here in the state of Illinois” — like affordable housing, safer communities and access to after school programs.
“We’ve still got weeks to go in this process,” Guzman said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen if the eleventh-hour HBIA is still not on the table, and I would hope to be able to partner with [Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park] on whatever the next step has to be to ensure that our community is safe and has the resources that they need.”
Alex Degman is an Illinois statehouse reporter for WBEZ based in Springfield.