Last week’s report from the Illinois auditor general was shocking enough, but the background makes it far worse.
The audit shows $1.6 billion spent on noncitizen healthcare, far outstripping the state’s appropriations and estimates and often including recipients not eligible for the program. What the audit doesn’t detail, however, is brazen, wanton malfeasance in how it all got started. State government knowingly printed a blank check, payable by taxpayers. Cost didn’t matter.
It began with legislation championed by Delia Ramirez (D-Chicago), then a state representative who had been appointed by local Democratic leadership after resignation of her predecessor.
In May 2020, Illinois became the first state to provide healthcare for illegal immigrants. The initial coverage that Ramirez proposed, for those 65 and older, was “tucked in near the end of the 465-page budget implementation bill that passed the Illinois General Assembly late Saturday night,” as reported by the State Journal-Register at the time.
You can read full background article by Mark Glennon of Wirepoints HERE.