SJ0127 96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

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SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution states that, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people"; and

WHEREAS, The U.S. Congress has recently passed and the President has signed into law federal legislation that imposes mandates on all states with regards to healthcare and insurance; and requires the expenditure of state funds to sustain these mandates; and

WHEREAS, The federal healthcare mandates expand Medicaid eligibility to include all adults under age 65 up to 133% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) beginning in 2014; and

WHEREAS, The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services estimates 600,000 to 650,000 people will be newly eligible under these federal mandates, requiring the expenditure of State funds increasing yearly to an estimated annual State expenditure of $195 million beginning in FY 2020; and

WHEREAS, The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services asserts that under the federal legislation Medicaid rates paid to doctors will be increased to the level of payment received for Medicare services, requiring after FY 2014, if the increased rates are to be maintained by the states, the cost to the State of Illinois to be an additional $500 to $600 million annually; and

WHEREAS, The federal healthcare initiative recently signed into law requires maintenance of effort from every state, including, but not limited to, maintaining current eligibility requirements for adults until the Health Care Exchange is fully operational, and current income eligibility levels for children in Medicaid and CHIP until 2019; and

WHEREAS, The creation of a new federal system of regulation for health insurance will be inefficient, unnecessary, not cost-effective, and an additional burden on the health care delivery system in Illinois; and

WHEREAS, Free and open markets for healthcare can improve quality, benefits, and customer service to a level that government-sponsored health plans cannot match; and

WHEREAS, The mandatory insurance measures recently enacted by Congress and signed into law by the President create a federally mandated health insurance exchange to compel the purchase of health insurance by individuals and small employers; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CONCURRING HEREIN, that we urge Congress to immediately initiate and enact legislation authorizing individual states, by positive action of their duly elected state legislatures and assemblies, the right and ability to decidedly remove their citizens and residents from any and all provisions instituting new federal review, oversight, or preemption of state health insurance laws; creation of any federally mandated health insurance exchange or connector; or mandated expenditure of state funds to maintain a federal healthcare initiative; and be it further

RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be distributed to all Members of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives elected by the people of the State of Illinois.