There are a number of different Illinois low income government health insurance programs that residents of Illinois can take advantage of. Whether you are looking for Illinois low income health insurance for your children, for someone who is disabled, or even if you are looking for an IL low income health insurance plan for yourself or your entire family then there are different options, bother governmental and private, that you should look into.
The state of Illinois is one of the largest states in the United States when speaking about population. Although the state is not very big compared to Texas or California, it houses approximately 12 million people and population has been growing about 3% every 5 years. With this in mind it is important to understand that the need for quality health insurance is a common one in this great state. With the health care costs rising, the state government has been faced with important decisions regarding what to do with families that have no money to afford health care, or families that do have money; but cannon really afford it because they live from paycheck to paycheck. The state of Illinois is one the best states in the nation regarding health insurance for low income families.
The Illinois Department of Health Care and Family Services is a prime place for low income families to find coverage for them or for their children. A program started by the former governor of Illinois, Mr. Rod R. Blagojevich is called Illinois Covered. This program is designed to allow those 1.4 million of uninsured people residing in the state of Illinois to gain health insurance coverage. The program which provides “affordable healthcare for all” was started simply because the governor is tired for waiting for Washington D.C. to come up with answers to the health care crisis that is roaming America in the last decades. The program in whole is divided into different categories depending on eligibility requirements a person needs to have in order to qualify.
One of the programs is called Family Care and its main focus is to provide health care coverage for Illinois people who are below 185% of the poverty line. The governor is trying to get a piece of legislation started in which the eligibility for this plan would go up to families below 400% the poverty line, which would include a larger percentage than those under the program now. What this plan does is offer healthcare coverage to parents living with their children 18 year old or younger and to relatives who are caring for children of those ages. The plan includes doctor visits, dental care, hospital care, emergency services, prescriptions, etc and these services will have small copays of approximately $5. Parents should expect to pay a monthly premium of $15 to $40 depending on the number of family members covered under the plan.
Another program the Illinois government has is called All Kids “Healthcare for kids” and it was started on July 1, 2006. This program is available for children ages 18 and younger, and recently the governor has proposed to cover people up to the age of 21 with this plan. There are a quarter of a million children (approximately 250,000) in the state of Illinois who do not have health insurance coverage. This program is designed to cover kids at an affordable price, and make them eligible to go see a doctor or get surgery when needed. The plan includes services such as doctor visits, hospital stays, prescription drug coverage, vision and dental care, and medical devices such as glasses and asthma inhalers. They rates are affordable and for middle income families the rates will be much lower than those in the private health insurance market.
Health Benefits for Workers with Disabilities coverage is another program in the state of Illinois, and they began providing services for in the year 2002. Families that were once middle class and are now low income families due to the disability of a family member is covered with these health plan as well. After a person is injured, many people fear going back to work because that would mean losing their health insurance coverage and many others just simply cannot afford private health insurance coverage. This program eases the transition from a disability back to work by making sure those people are fully covered with Medicaid. If you are an individual between he ages of 18 and 64 that is disabled and you earn a monthly income of $1,702 per month for individual and $2,282 for a couple you might qualify for this health benefit.
Two other important programs in that the state of Illinois offered that are somewhat linked to each other are Illinois Covered Assist and Illinois Covered Rebate. Illinois Covered Assist is a new program that focuses on primary care and disease management of very low income families, primarily speaking families making less than $10,210 annually for an individual or $13,960 for a family. They will provide access to a medical home through a medical center in the community and prescription drug benefits. On the other hand, Illinois Covered Rebate was designed to help middle income Illinois families to pay for their health insurance premiums. This will pay up to 20% of their premium or up to $1,000 per year.
Although healthcare in the state of Illinois is not perfect and there is still a lot to be done to improve it, the former governor has been doing a great job expanding the benefits so that his programs cover a variety and a high number of people. If you want more information about low income coverage for families in the state, you can contact the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services or a local Illinois health insurance agent or broker.
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