The seven Democratic candidates for statewide office in the November election will begin a bus tour of northern Illinois in Joliet Monday, seeking not only support for their candidacies but also backing for reforms of health maintenance organizations.
U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun and candidates Glenn Poshard for governor, Mary Lou Kearns for lieutenant governor, Miriam Santos for attorney general, Jesse White for secretary of state, Dan McLaughlin for state treasurer and Dan Hynes for state comptroller will begin the tour with a rally in the Van Buren Plaza at Chicago and Van Buren Streets in Joliet at 8 a.m.
Among the legislative proposals the Democratic candidates will discuss is a state and federal bill of rights for patients that would allow medical personnel instead of HMO administrators to decide on the proper course of treatment.
Under HMO plans, physicians can recommend or authorize treatments for patients, but the decision to approve or deny payment rests with HMO officials, Poshard said. Consequently, doctors often feel their hands are tied when trying to decide on treatment for their patients.
“I’m fighting to make sure medical decisions are controlled by medical doctors and not some HMO bureaucrat,” Poshard said.
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Poshard added that a family should not be denied coverage for health care because an HMO administrator in an office hundreds of miles away is more concerned about profits than with the well-being of patients.
Moseley-Braun said she would support federal legislation to guarantee that a patient can have a doctor treat an ongoing medical condition even if the doctor is dropped by the HMO.
“A family expecting a new child should not be precluded from continuing to see their doctor just because their HMO decides to drop that doctor from its network,” Moseley-Braun said. “Continuity of care is an essential component of HMO reform.”
Following the Joliet rally, the candidates’ bus tour will travel to Morris, Ill., for a rally at 9:45 a.m. in Canal Port Plaza near the Grundy County Courthouse. The tour will continue on to LaSalle County, Kewanee, Rock Island, Sterling, Rockford, Freeport, Dixon and DeKalb.
On Tuesday, the tour will end with stops in Aurora, west suburban Lisle and Chicago.