A federal judge says payments to Medicaid providers in Cook County, Ill., must continue even without a state budget.
U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow ordered the payments Thursday after advocates for Medicaid recipients brought the matter to court. Chicago is in Cook County.
The Chicago Tribune reports Gov. Bruce Rauner's administration tried to avoid payments. It asked providers of the federal-state health program for poor and disabled people to continue offering care during the impasse and to wait for reimbursement.
The first-term Republican governor and Democrat-controlled Legislature remain deadlocked on a July 1 fiscal year budget.
The Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law and AIDS Legal Council of Chicago brought the case and say the effects could ripple beyond Cook County.
Messages seeking comment were left for the Rauner administration and the state comptroller's office.
