Wow... Blago, Dem leaders propose sweeping children's health care initiative

From the Governor's press release:

Governor Rod R. Blagojevich today unveiled a landmark proposal that would make Illinois the first state in the nation to provide affordable, comprehensive health insurance for every child in the state. At a meeting with several middle-income families from the Chicago area who all make too much to qualify for state-funded healthcare, but cannot afford the high cost of private insurance, the Governor laid out his plan to ensure that every child in Illinois has access to affordable health insurance. Of the 253,000 children in Illinois without health insurance, more than half come from working and middle class families who earn too much to qualify for programs like KidCare, but not enough to afford private health insurance. The Governor’s program would make comprehensive health insurance available to children, with parents paying monthly premiums and co-payments for doctors’ visits and prescription drugs at affordable rates.

“At one point or another, nearly everyone has lived through the experience of seeing a loved one cope with sickness or a serious injury. You only have to go through that experience once to know just how much it means to have health insurance. Yet hundreds of thousands of children in Illinois don’t have health insurance. That means they can’t see a doctor when they need to, can’t get the medicine they need, can’t get the care they need. And when they do get medical care, it’s often in the emergency room, after a small problem has grown into a big problem. Children should have health care and our new program makes affordable, good health care available to every child in Illinois,” said Gov. Blagojevich.

State Senate President Emil Jones and House Speaker Michael J. Madigan have signed on as the lead sponsors of legislation creating the All Kids health insurance program and have vowed to push for its passage during the upcoming fall veto session so the program can be up and running by July 1, 2006.

It's a little sketchy as to how this expansion of state health care benefits would be funded, but if it's anything near being feasible in the real world, it would be a great accomplishment. The proposal is getting international coverage.

What do you think?