Health care task force provides update on its work

(CHICAGO) Illinois Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner has renewed his emphasis on finding waste in taxpayer-funded health care programs.

Rauner appeared Wednesday at a Chicago news conference to release a report from a task force he created to study the matter.

Established in April, the group has studied the best practices of agency fraud prevention units, the efforts of the federal government and other state governments and those in the private sector. But savings have been elusive so far.

The state has removed about 6,000 dependents from the State Employee Group Insurance Program for eligibility issues such as divorced spouses and adult children, which reaped $20 million in savings last fiscal year. The employee group insurance program covers most of the state’s employees, their dependents and retirees and costs taxpayers about $3 billion a year.

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