A federal judge could decide soon whether the state of Illinois should pay Medicaid providers faster during the budget impasse.
Tom Yates is an attorney representing low-income Medicaid patients. He says doctors, hospitals and health care organizations could stop seeing those patients very soon because the state is so late in reimbursing what’s already owed to the doctors.
"Poor people and normal citizens of Illinois should not suffer because these folks can’t come to a budget deal," Yates said.
Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza says the state is out of money. She says if the judge orders the state to pay Medicaid faster the state will have to slow down payments to schools, pensions, or its debt services.