The AP reports:
Gov. Rod Blagojevich said it is "Scrooge-like" for a wealthy businessman to try to stop the expansion of a government health care program by claiming it is unconstitutional.Socialists can't be bothered by the restraints of a constitution.
A business group led by Republican Ron Gidwitz sued state officials earlier this week to stop Blagojevich from expanding the Family Care insurance program without legislative approval.
"I find it almost Dickens-like that the heir to a shampoo fortune would go the extra length and go into court to try to take away health care," Blagojevich said Thursday.
Gidwitz's father founded the Helene Curtis cosmetics company, the maker of some popular brands of shampoo.
"This is not about health care, this is about the governor upholding the laws of the state of Illinois, his sworn duty," said Gidwitz, who was an unsuccessful GOP candidate for governor.
Blagojevich commented on the lawsuit by Gidwitz's group during a news conference at an Oak Park medical clinic to tout another program he recently expanded, one for breast and cervical cancer screenings. Women enrolled in that program and in Family Care flanked the governor.
"I'm not worrying every night about how I'm going to pay for my delivery," said Bethany Arteaga, who is pregnant and recently got accepted into the Family Care program.
But Gidwitz's group, the Illinois Coalition for Jobs, Growth and Prosperity, contends in its lawsuit the Blagojevich administration may be signing up people for health care that can't be delivered and for which hospitals might not be reimbursed. They want a judge in Sangamon County to stop the expansion and halt any money to it.
The Democratic governor is moving ahead with plans to add about 147,000 parents and caretakers to Family Care by expanding income eligibility. It's another step in Blagojevich's piecemeal effort to expand health care because lawmakers didn't support his plan to pay the huge cost of ensuring everyone in Illinois has access to affordable insurance. Family Care participants pay premiums based on their income.
A bipartisan legislative committee last month rejected the administration's proposal to expand the program, expected to cost $43 million for this fiscal year.
The Blagojevich administration contends the committee doesn't have the constitutional authority to do that. The governor said Thursday he has the authority to expand eligibility for such health programs.
The administration wants to expand income eligibility to almost $83,000 from $38,000 for a family of four. The state had already signed up 500 families by last month.
On Thursday, Blagojevich again relished in his efforts to increase access to health care over the objections of lawmakers and without their approval.
"I take great pride in the fact that I go around the Legislature to provide health care," to women like those at Thursday's event, he said.
