This is probably what the Governor should have done already...

The Capitol Fax Blog talks a little about this story from yesterday. I had this in my del.icio.us links yesterday as well. Here's an excerpt from Crain's...

Gov. Rod Blagojevich opened a new front Thursday in his stalled campaign to expand the state’s role in providing health insurance, ordering insurers not to raise their rates on individuals who become ill.

In an appearance at the Chicago Medical District on the Near West Side, the governor announced that health insurers will be permitted to consider only demographic and inflation factors — not health history — in renewing individual health policies that cover about 1 million Illinoisans.

The rule would not apply to group insurance policies, which cover the majority of Illinoisans.

The governor said he also has ordered the state Department of Financial and Professional Regulation to issue rules mandating that health insurers disclose each quarter how much they’ve spent on claims and how much they’ve collected in premiums.

Gov. Blagojevich accompanied his announcement with a strong appeal to state lawmakers to enact his universal health care plan. The plan as well, as the rest of the fiscal 2008 state budget, has been caught in a legislative standoff in Springfield.

The rules announced Thursday, slated to take effect later this year, may draw a strong, negative response from the insurance industry, and could be blocked in court or by a General Assembly committee that reviews proposed regulations. But, surrounded by medical personnel and patients with tales of insurance woes, Mr. Blagojevich said he will “do what I can” to help the ill, even if lawmakers balk at the cost of his wider insurance plan.

“Insurance companies shouldn’t use someone’s illness as an excuse to raise profits,” the governor declared. “It’s wrong — and I intend to stop it.”

While the governor still insists on his universal health insurance program that was to be paid for by a gross receipts tax. This GRT went down in flames in the Illinois House of Reps. and oh woe is us our General Assembly is in overtime session attempting to hammer out a budget. Some of this has to do with the Governor's unwillingness to compromise on his failing health care iniative.
Still rather than a big time universal health insurance scheme, I'd rather anyone interested in health care would look at some of these smaller issues. I'd rather that instead of creating a big scheme for a program that many in this state doesn't seem to want to go for right now.