Friday, May 18, 2007

Illinois Covered -- RIP?

Categories: Illinois

While the Wall Street Journal declared Gov. Blagojevich's "Illinois Covered" "universal health care" proposal dead last week as a result of the 107 - 0 resolution against a gross receipts tax, the socialized medicine set isn't giving up.

According to news stories in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (yes they are IL paper, too) agitators for a DMV takeover of health care are launching an ad campaign and are planning a march on Springfield (which will have zero impact).

Meanwhile, the Speaker of the House polled his Democrat caucus to find out its views on the Governor's budget and their priorities. Two things came out of that.

1. There wasn't much support among House Dems for a tax hike

2. The Governor's universal health care plan wasn't even asked about let alone voted upon.

Just the same, we've built on some work done by Grace-Marie Turner and David Knot et. al. to point out that in many respects, while Illinois dithers, the market is already acting to bring down health costs.