Illinois makes big strides in covering all kids

Physicians are participating in the state's subsidized insurance program, but they would like to see better payment.

By Doug Trapp, AMNews staff. April 16, 2007.

Washington -- The 11-year-old boy is 4 feet, 9 inches tall and weighs 140 pounds. His single mother, who does not speak English, is worried that he might be having seizures while he sleeps.

His mother takes two buses to get him to Carrie Nelson, MD, a North Aurora, Ill., family physician and associate director of the Family Medicine Residency Program at the Rush-Copley Medical Center.

"He's a real at-risk child," said Dr. Nelson, an Illinois Academy of Family Physicians board member.

The 11-year-old is one of the 155,000 previously uninsured children in Illinois getting health care through All Kids. The $45 million insurance program, passed in November 2005, targets uninsured children who don't qualify for Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program. The state estimated that 200,000 to 250,000 children lacked insurance when All Kids launched in mid-2006.

The program is a leading attempt to connect all children to primary care doctors through sliding-scale subsidized health insurance. The plan includes hospital, physician, dental and vision care, and prescription drugs. Children are eligible no matter their citizenship status or income, but families earning more pay higher premiums and co-pays.

Dr. Nelson has been seeing more children lately. Though they're not always economically disadvantaged, All Kids is giving their families access to immunizations and other well-child care they didn't have before, she said.