Increasing taxpayer cost of migrant health care in Illinois raises concerns

As the taxpayer costs of health care for migrants in Illinois approaches $1 billion, some are saying enough is enough.

After an initial budget estimate by Gov. J.B. Pritzker for migrant health care of $550 million, that figure has ballooned to about $770 million.

During a news conference Thursday, state Sen. Sue Rezin, R-Morris, said that money could be used to help people who already live in Illinois.

“The money spent on this program inevitably reduces funding and resources available for other crucial and essential programs for Illinois citizens,” Rezin said.

It was revealed this week by the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services that nearly all copays have been eliminated for migrants. State Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, said everyone else has to pay insurance premiums and copays.

“Anybody listening, watching, reading this report tomorrow, gets up, goes to work and does their job, pays their health care premium, pays their kid’s ER copay, pays their kid’s doctor’s copay, and then non-citizens show up and it’s free,” Rose said. “This is nuts.”

Enrollees of the Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults or Health Benefits for Immigrant Seniors programs must pay a $250 copay for inpatient hospitalizations, but emergency room visits are excluded.

Rezin said she can see migrants heading to the ER at a time when Illinois emergency rooms are already overburdened.

“What used to be two hours is now eight hours,” Rezin said earlier this week. “It is going to increase the backlog even more and it’s the most costly form of medical care that we have.”

About 35,000 migrants have arrived in Illinois from other countries in the past 16 months. Illinois is one of just five states in the U.S. to provide Medicaid-like benefits to undocumented illegal immigrants at taxpayer cost.