Props to Rod Blagojevich for making health care a priority in his state:
Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) will unveil a proposal Thursday to subsidize health insurance for 253,000 uninsured children in Illinois, a move that specialists describe as more far-reaching than any other program in the country.
Seventy-percent of the state's uninsured children belong to families that earn $40,000 to $80,000 a year -- too much to qualify for government programs but often too little to afford private insurance.
Under Blagojevich's All Kids proposal, endorsed by the leaders of both houses of the state legislature, a family of four earning $40,000 to $59,000 would pay $40 per month per child and $10 per doctor visit.
If the measure becomes law, the Blagojevich administration hopes to enroll 50,000 children the first year at a cost of $45 million.
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The numbers of uninsured remains high in Illinois, despite the fact that 370,000 more people have health insurance now than when Blagojevich took office in 2003. One in eight children in Cook County, home to Chicago, has no health coverage. The proportion in far southern Illinois is higher.
This is where to begin. Covering kids is cheap, important, and relatively uncontroversial. And if you run those programs well, parents will see the higher quality of their children's health care, and easily make the connection that this could be extended to them.
