Cliff Surges

A press release from Cliff Surges, who is running against Karen McConnaughay for the State Senate in south central McHenry County and Kane County:

Cliff Surges calls for Medicaid system reform as Illinois heads for crisis

The present facts of the Illinois Medicaid system are staggering. The state is pushing Medicaid payments off to future budgets which has caused a backlog of $1.8 billion of unpaid bills to medical providers. A recent Civic Federation report has projected the backlog could reach $21 billion by the year 2017. This is on top of the cost of covering 2.7 million citizens currently in the system.

“We need to transform our existing system with concrete changes,” Cliff stated. “The integrity of the eligibility process needs to be enhanced.”

Surges is calling for immediate action following the forensic audit in progress, to eliminate fraud and waste in the system. Other action items include:

• A stricter proof of income level and Illinois residency, along with a periodic re-eligibility test
• Reducing adult eligibility to 133% of the federal poverty level, down from the current 185%
• Moving from a “fee for service” system to a care coordination system
• A shift to more than 50% of recipients in managed care by 2015

“This system is dysfunctional and broken. The wasted money and resources need to be spent on helping the truly needy, thereby improving Medicaid’s disastrous health outcomes,” Cliff said.

Surges is a Senate candidate in the 33rd district [running against Karen McConnauhay].