CALLS NEEDED TO COOK COUNTY COMMISSIONERS:
SAVE COOK COUNTY HEALTHCARE NOW!

TAKE ACTION: Cook County residents are urged to call their Board Commissioners TODAY and no later than Monday, October 1. To find your commissioner and their phone number, enter your address here.

Leave this message: “I’m calling to urge the Commissioner to take immediate actions to save Cook County’s healthcare system from further decline. The system needs professional management and increased funding NOW.”

Background: The last seven months have been extremely challenging for the thousands of low-income Cook County residents who rely on county facilities for their basic healthcare. Half of the 26 ambulatory clinics have been closed, hundreds of healthcare workers have been laid off, and dozens of vital healthcare programs (including essential HIV and STD services at the Ruth M. Rothstein CORE Center and Cook County Jail) were discontinued as part of an austere budget designed to close a half billion dollar deficit.

Still, without stronger leadership from County President Todd Stroger and the 17 members of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, more painful healthcare cuts may yet come. According to conservative estimates, Cook County’s 2008 budget deficit could exceed $288 million (not counting the 2007 projected deficit of $121 million). As a result of new federal caps, the county is expected to lose $68 million in Medicaid reimbursements next year. All the while, the number of low-income residents with inadequate or non-existent healthcare coverage continues to grow as do healthcare and labor costs. According to a report unveiled this week by the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, Cook County is facing few options to increase revenue and stem a spiraling “structural deficit.”

People with HIV/AIDS are among the thousands of low-income residents directly affected by the piecemeal dismantling of Cook County’s public healthcare system:

• HIV-related healthcare and voluntary HIV testing services were disrupted for hundreds of patients when 13 community clinics were closed

• CORE Center clients no longer have on-site access to X-ray services or the evening STD screening clinic.

• Voluntary STD screening and HIV testing services at Cook County Jail have been eliminated.

• In an attempt to improve third-party reimbursement, thousands of patients have received county bills that they can’t afford to pay. And some have even been referred to payment collection agencies.

• Fewer staff in the County’s three hospitals—Stroger, Provident, and Oak Forest—mean less attention to quality management, which could put the hospitals’ accreditation in jeopardy. Los Angeles County’s King-Harbor Hospital closed abruptly this summer after losing accreditation.

• The Cook County Department of Public Health, with responsibility for HIV and STD prevention services in suburban Cook County, is severely under-funded.

• An estimated 5,500 HIV-positive people receive their healthcare at the CORE Center. Cook County is the state’s leading provider of HIV-related healthcare, serving an estimated 1 in 3 HIV-positive patients in Chicago and 1 in 5 in Illinois.

• The Cook County Bureau of Health is the largest provider of medical care to the uninsured, under-insured, and Medicaid population in Illinois and the 3rd largest public hospital system in the nation.

Possible solutions:

• Board Commissioner Joan Murphy is championing a controversial proposal to raise the County sales tax from .75% to 2%, and others are proposing telecommunications and energy taxes. Regardless of the mechanism, increased revenue is desperately needed to prevent further healthcare cuts.

• Healthcare and consumer advocates want to remove the county’s health system from the day-to-day control of the Cook County Board of Commissioners to insulate the system from patronage and institute professional management practices utilized by private healthcare institutions.

• A blue-ribbon committee backed by U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin is expected to present a slate of recommendations to improve County health services and restructure financing for County services.

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