Without much advance fanfare, the State of Illinois has passed a law intended to close Illinois’ $2.7 billion dollar Medicaid funding gap. On June 14, 2012, Governor Quinn signed Public Act 97-689 into law. Among other things, the law amends the Illinois Public Aid Code to change Medicaid eligibility rules. The Chicago Sun Times printed a story criticizing the law for “cutting people off of medicaid”. The law changes medicaid eligibility rules for people who own real estate and suspended the use of “OBRA” pooled trusts (one form of special needs trust) for anyone over age 65 who is not a ward of the public guardian (OPG) or the state guardian (OSG).
