Illinois Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner last week proposed $1.5 billion in cuts to Illinois' Medicaid program, saying the state will become more aggressive in ferreting out current Medicaid recipients who do not qualify for the program.
The Rauner administration is ordering the state's health department to reinstate an “aggressive review” of the Medicaid rolls. More than 250,000 people receive Medicaid services whose eligibility has not been reviewed, according to Rauner's budget documents. Illinois has nearly 3.5 million residents who are eligible for Medicaid, according to the documents.
Other healthcare cuts in the governor's proposed fiscal 2016 state budget include eliminating nonmandatory adult services from Medicaid, cutting certain payments to hospitals and moving some medical-assistance recipients onto exchange plans.
The budget proposes allocating nearly $19 billion for Medicaid to the state's Department of Healthcare and Family Services, which runs the program. However, the proposed budget eliminates adult services for dental care and podiatry, which are not mandatory for the Medicaid program.
