Illinois health care providers say cutting Medicaid payments would bar low-income residents from getting the health care they need.
Republican House Minority Leader Jim Durkin has proposed legislation to give Governor Bruce Rauner extraordinary powers to cut the budget. That includes allowing the governor to adjust payment rates and to limit eligibility for services.
Tim Egan, the C-E-O of Roseland Community Hospital in Chicago, says the current budget impasse has strained resources. He says additional cuts could cause the hospital to close, or to stop providing needed services.
"I have people who walk through my front door shot, they drive themselves to the front door shot or they get driven and dumped out on the sidewalk shot. Those people would absolutely die," said Egan.
Rauner says he needs the flexibility to make cuts because the state has billions of dollars in unpaid bills. He blames Democrats for blocking the structural changes he says are needed to turn the state's finances around.
Democrats say Rauner's agenda would hurt the Illinois in the long run.