Illinois to offer health coverage to all children

Physician groups support "All Kids" but are keeping an eye on its implementation, including Medicaid changes designed to pay for the new program.

By Amy Snow Landa, AMNews correspondent. Dec. 12, 2005.

Illinois has passed a groundbreaking plan to offer health insurance coverage to all uninsured children, but support from the medical community is tempered by uncertainty over how the state will carry out and finance the program.

"All Kids," which Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed into law Nov. 15, will cover a broad array of benefits, including doctor and emergency department visits, hospital stays, prescription drugs, vision care, dental care and medical devices such as eyeglasses and asthma inhalers.

The program will begin providing benefits July 1, 2006. Currently, more than 250,000 Illinois children lack health insurance.

The initiative could be seen as a model for other states, particularly in the absence of any movement in Washington to further expand children's health care coverage, said Alan Weil, executive director of the National Academy of State Health Policy.

All Kids has garnered endorsement from the Illinois State Medical Society, the Illinois Academy of Family Physicians and the Illinois Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

"Anything that improves access to health care is a good development as far as family physicians are concerned, so we're hopeful for the program," said IAFP President Fredric Leary, MD. On the other hand, "we're skeptical about the details," he said.

IAFP and other physicians groups have been meeting with the Illinois Dept. of Healthcare and Family Services to discuss the details of the program's implementation.