Progressives Outraged Over Pause to Immigrant Health Insurance Program
Governor JB Pritzker signs the state budget earlier this month.
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Progressives aren’t saying much publicly yet, but we’re hearing there’s a lot of frustration among both Latino caucus and progressive members of the General Assembly after an announcement the Pritzker administration will freeze enrollment in a Medicaid-style health insurance plan for undocumented immigrants.
The expected cost for the program in the fiscal year beginning July 1 was around $1.1 billion, but the General Assembly budgeted just half, $550 million, in the spending plan they approved in May. Democrats at the time argued they were giving the Governor’s office the “tools” to manage costs, but we’re told many Latino and progressive lawmakers were “caught off guard” when the briefed by the Governor’s office Friday and told the program would be limited.
“It doesn’t just affect Latinos — it affects all of Illinois,” Rep. Edgar Gonzalez (D-Chicago) told the Chicago Tribune. “You would think after years in a global pandemic that the state would understand firsthand what lack of health care does to vulnerable populations.”
Congresswoman Delia Ramirez (D-Chicago), who was one of the original proponents of the plan when in the Illinois House, issued a statement Friday calling the move “extremely disappointing” and the Pritzker administration’s blame on cost as a “pretense.”
“This is a policy choice,” Ramirez said in a statement. “The idea that, in the richest nation in the world, we have to choose between who is worthy of affordable access to health care and who is not is a false choice built on fearmongering and anti-immigrant rhetoric. This decision won't only put thousands of hard-working, taxpaying immigrants' lives in danger, but it will also cost the state money in the long run.”
Pritzker has not responded publicly since the announcement Friday.
“I don’t know what they were expecting,” said one moderate Democrat lawmaker on the condition of anonymity. “The Governor has to find a way to control costs here and you can’t just make half a billion grow on trees.”
We’re told many progressive and Latino lawmakers upset by the decision are keeping their frustrations out of the public domain in hopes of convincing Pritzker to reverse course on the decision.