Published by Huffington Post, May 16, 2012

By Matt Sledge

Under an agreement approved by the City Council last year, Chicago is set to hand over $6 million in tax increment financing to Accretive Health, the hospital debt collector at the center of a growing row between Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson.

Published in the Chicago Tribune May 8, 2012

By Peter Frost Tribune reporter

Dismayed with Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson's handling of a public dispute with Chicago-based Accretive Health Inc., Mayor Rahm Emanuel is urging the fellow Democrat to resume talks with the embattled company and "cease efforts to publicly prosecute" the matter in the press.

In a letter sent to Swanson on Friday, Emanuel defended the hospital billings and collections company, saying it "does important things for hospitals and good things for our city, particularly for our neediest citizens."

Published in the New York Times April 24, 2012

By JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG
 

Hospital patients waiting in an emergency room or convalescing after surgery are being confronted by an unexpected visitor: a debt collector at bedside.

Marcia Newton took her son Maxx to a hospital where debt collectors were among employees.
 

Excerpted from: "May Day marches, rallies do little to disrupt work day in Loop," Chicago Tribune, May 1, 2012; by  Jeff Coen, David Heinzmann, and Ryan Haggerty.

"Jim Rhodes, 71, of Logan Square was holding one end of a yellow banner that read "Health Care is a Human Right". A retired purchasing manager for an aluminum company and a grandfather of six, Rhodes said he belongs to a group that advocates for an expansion of Medicare to be the single-payer health provider for the whole country.

Posted by Radical Minds, April 24, 2012.

Healthcare Reform and American Politics: An Interview with Helen Redmond

Letter to the Editor published in the Chicago Tribune April 26, 2012

Medicaid Cuts

By Kristen Pavle

Many of the impending Illinois Medicaid cuts are short-sighted and will result in an increase in expenditures. This is particularly true for Medicaid community-living waiver programs that offer services for older adults and younger persons with disabilities.

Published in The News-Gazette, May 1, 2012

By Debra Pressey, Staff Writer

CHAMPAIGN — Frances Nelson Health Center, a Champaign clinic under the control of a Decatur organization for the past 11 years, could soon be back in local hands.

A new not-for-profit corporation was established last month to take over the clinic, and a local board was established to see the transition through, with a goal of detaching the Champaign clinic from the Community Health Improvement Center of Decatur by June 1, said Lyn Jones, president of the United Way of Champaign County.

Governor Pat Quinn: Don't cut Illinois' Medicaid budget. Support Medicare for All (single-payer) instead!

Click here to sign the petition.

Illinois governor Pat Quinn proposes to cut $2.7 billion (19%) from the state's $14 billion Medicaid budget. Three million Illinois residents (almost 1 in 4) depend on Medicaid for access to health care.

This notice was first published 1/31/12.

By Anne Scheetz

If you try to sign our petition in support of the Illinois Universal Health Care Act, or try to sign up to become an activist, chances are you will receive an "error" message stating that the site can't match your 9-digit zip code to an Illinois legislative district.

The problem came to our attention in late January, and we believe it is due to the redistricting that took place at the beginning of this year--that is, the difficulty lies in the way our website interfaces with the Board of Elections records that match every address in the state to city, county, state, and federal electoral districts.

Published in Crain's Chicago Business April 9, 2012

By Quentin Young, MD

The proposal put forth by the safety-net hospitals in Illinois will cut as many as 300,000 people from Medicaid coverage ("Hospitals failing checkups," Crain's, Feb. 27). This reality places in stark relief the perpetuation of a broken health financing system. The toll will be exacted in preventable suffering, preventable death, in a word, the inhumanity of a health system that is the costliest in the world and yet leaves millions without financial protection.