DeKalb Times

Illinois State Rep. Dave Syverson (R-Rockford) is blasting House Democrats for last minute changes to recently passed medical legislation.  

House Bill 4343 passed largely along party lines, with a 71-42 vote in the House and a 33-17 vote in the Senate on April 9. The bill amends the Medical Assistance Article of the Illinois Public Aid Code and allows the Department of Healthcare and Family Services to provide medical services to noncitizens who are 42 to 54 years old.

Syverson said a bipartisan Medicaid working group was supposed to collaborate on the bill, but the majority House Democrats allegedly changed the provisions of the bill at the last minute.

"Was this expansion discussed during the Medicaid working group at any time over the last three months? What is the purpose of having this Medicaid working group?" Syverson said during an April 9 Senate floor session. "We had a bipartisan group for the last three months getting up at 7 in the morning for these meetings with the agreement that all Medicaid expansions and increases would be working through this group. And then you turn around a couple of hours after this agreement and you change the bill. All we have is our word down here and this is something that has a working group, we had an agreement that this was going to be done and then this gets thrown in and changed at the last minute."

Syverson said he isn't sure why there is a "working group" if things are going to be changed later.

"If this was such an important issue why was it not brought up?" Syverson said. "There were a number of issues we rejected and others that we approved but we all went through the working group to hear from everyone regarding it to come up with this plan."

House Bill 4343 was sponsored by Democratic Reps. Greg Harris, Mary Flowers, Elizabeth Hernandez, Camille Lilly, Robyn Gabel, Bob Morgan, Delia Ramirez, Barbara Hernandez, Anna Moeller, Dagmara Avelar, Kathleen Willis, Margaret Croke, Terra Costa Howard, Maura Hirschauer, Janet Yang Rohr, Joyce Mason, Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz and Anne Stava-Murray in the House and Democratic Sens. Ann Gillespie, Mike Simmons, Jacqueline Collins, Sara Feigenholtz, Laura Fine, Karina Villa and Cristina Pacione-Zayes in the Senate.