(The Center Square) – A candidate for the Illinois Statehouse worries there could be a dark side to the 725% increase in Medicaid payments for children without Social Security numbers.
After more than a year of digging, Statehouse candidate Bailey Templeton’s most public records collection shows 1,085 Illinois children under 18 without SSNs had Medicaid bills of $66 million in 2025. That’s up 725% from $8 million for 450 children in 2021.
“It’s roughly $40 million spent on inpatient treatment, that’s a lot of time for children to be in hospitals,” Templeton told The Center Square Friday.
The data only generates more questions for Templeton.
“It raises questions about what would be called medical trafficking, where things are conducted on to children when they’re too young to be able to consent to these things,” she said.
Templeton said she has further FOIA requests pending.
The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services didn’t immediately respond to questions on why there was a 725% spike in such payments.
Templeton, who is running for Illinois 94th House District Republican primary, said she isn’t aiming to take away care for migrant children. She said they just happen to be the most vulnerable.
“And if they don’t have anybody watching out for what’s best for them, you never know what could be happening to them,” Templeton said. “And yes, it is a really dark side, but there are really dark things happening in this country and across the world, and we are all aware of that.”
Documents Templeton received from the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services show inpatient hospital costs for children without SSNs in 2021 were $1.9 million. That jumped to $39.3 million in 2025. Outpatient hospital costs went from $3.4 million in 2021 to $10.6 million in 2025. Other categories that also increased in costs were pharmacy, physician/clinic/APN, and social worker/psychologist/LCPC.
“I think the taxpayers deserve answers 100%,” Templeton said. “We are paying for everything that is coming forth through this overpayment system, that’s coming from your money, that should be going to you and your family directly.”
The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services didn’t immediately respond to questions about the spike in payments.
Other Freedom of Information Act requests Templeton has filed include determining how many children on the radar of the Department of Children and Family Services are missing. A follow up FOIA by The Center Square found 193 youth in care missing in 2025.
Another FOIA response Templeton collected showed there are 20,000 children getting taxpayer funded Medicaid without having SSNs. She said her latest FOIA showing the costs doesn’t square with previous information she’s gathered.
“When I found out that only 1,085 of them are in Illinois DCF’s care, it raises questions about the other 19,000 children in whose care that they are in, and who is overseeing the hospital treatments,” Templeton said.
