Selected State Reports

State Documents

■    Preface to Lawmaking, Illinois Legislative Council, Publication 172 (August 1983), 123 pp.

This comprehensive guide to the history and present functioning of the General Assembly was specifically designed for new legislators but should be of interest to many others as well. It contains basic information about constitutional provisions affecting the legislative process, the structure of the legislature, how bills are passed, legislative salaries and fringe benefits, and the kinds of staff support available to legislators. Six appendices include such things as the statute relating to the General Assembly and a primer on the state's legal system. An extensive index is also provided.

■    Health Maintenance Organizations in Illinois, Office of Health Planning, Department of Public Health (1983), 25 pp.

It has been estimated that HMOs can reduce total health care costs by as much as 10-40 percent over conventional insurance plans. This booklet explains what an HMO is, how it can reduce costs, the advantages of an HMO and what the future prospects are for this relatively new concept in health care. It also contains a number of tables, graphs and charts showing statistical information about HMOs in Illinois, as well as a list (as of April 1983) of nine HMOs in the Chicago area and four in other parts of the state.

Other Reports

■    Public Aid: Facts and Fallacies, League of Women Voters of Illinois, 67 East Madison St., Chicago 60603 (December 1983), 6 pp.; 60 cents.

In 1983 the Department of Public Aid served over one million recipients, had a budget of $3 billion and employed a staff of about 8,500 people. While stereotypes and myths concerning those who receive public assistance abound, the official data show a somewhat different picture. This pamphlet presents both sides, discusses several unsolved problems facing public aid programs and concludes that reforms that include a range of services targeted to those most in need, while expensive, might reduce the number of people stuck in the public aid system.

Items listed under State Documents have been received by the Documents Unit, Illinois State Library, Springfield, and are usually available from public libraries in the state through inter-library loan.                                    Anna J. Merritt

April 1984/Illinois Issues/31