WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) -- A reduction in what Illinois will have to pay the federal government for Medicare prescription drug coverage is expected to save the state more than $199 million.
U.S. Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the reduction Thursday.
The temporary financial boost to Illinois and other states is made possible by last year's stimulus package.
That law increased the amount states receive from the federal government to help pay for their Medicaid programs.
Sebelius says her department will apply the same principle to the amount states pay to for Medicare prescription drug coverage.
The savings are retroactive to October 2008 and will be deducted from what states otherwise would have owed the federal government.
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