By Eric Stock

BLOOMINGTON – Illinois officials have asked President Obama for more power to decide how it manages Medicaid spending, but it hasn’t heard anything yet.

Now that time is running out on the Obama administration, Illinois is turning its attention to president-elect Donald Trump. State Sen. Bill Brady, R-Bloomingon, said he expects the new administration will give states more flexibility.

PODCAST: Listen to Scott’s interview with Brady on WJBC. 

“Give states more opportunity to be innovative in delivering health care than what they have been in the regulatory environment of the Obama administration,” Brady said.

President-elect Trump has said he wants to repeal and replace Obamacare, but it’s not clear how that might impact Medicaid.

Brady welcomes the Obamacare overhaul.

“This whole issue of eliminating what we know Obamacare as and reinventing a health care system that works for all Americans,” Brady said.

The state House Republicans’ Medicaid pointman, State Rep. Tom Demmer said no one seems to know what Congress can do.

Illinois’ waiver would allow the state to bill the federal government for some of the cost of treating mental illness and drug addiction for inmates in the state’s correctional system. The state says the change could save taxpayers more than a billion dollars over five years.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected]
Illinois Radio Network contributed to this report.