Illinois Senate Leader questions transparency, cost of state programs

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Some Illinois Senate Republicans are criticizing the management of several state agencies.

Illinois Senate Republican Leader John Curran joined Illinois State Senators in Springfield Wednesday as they expressed their anger over the way Gov. J.B. Pritzker is handling the state's agencies. 

"It is impossible to talk about Illinois' challenges without talking about the governor's health benefits for immigrant adults and seniors program. I have great concerns about the program's cost structure as well as lack of transparency as well as failure to implement any cost control measures that the governor previously talked about," said Curran. 

Curran says the programs' projected cost for this fiscal year was $1 billion. It was budgeted for half of that.

Curran says to get costs down, the governor said he would institute a co-pay for the migrants.

But that didn't last long. Pritzker ended that last month and had healthcare providers refund what had been collected already.