Saints Mary and Elizabeth Medical Center employees at a somber kickoff to rally against proposed cuts to state-funded Medicaid programs and services on Wednesday (DNAinfo/Alisa Hauser)
WEST TOWN — Medicaid cuts totaling $1.5 billion in Gov. Rauner's proposed 2016 budget would force significant layoffs and service reductions at Presence Health, according to the hospital network.
Presence Health says it is the state's largest hospital network serving the poor and uninsured; the cuts would affect 76,009 patients at one West Town hospital alone, it said.
Illinois' Medicaid program has previously come under fire for enrolling potentially hundreds of thousand of ineligible residents, according to a recent report.
The proposed cuts, part of plan to reduce the state's $111 billion deficit caused by the pension crisis (plus another $6 billion in unpaid bills, the Huffington Post reports), would impact services like hospital stays, prenatal care and X-rays covered under Medicaid, according to Presence Health.
Medicaid serves 1 out of every 3 residents, or about 3 million people in Illinois, said John Hennelly, a growth strategist for Presence Health. The hospital group, with 11 facilities, served a total of 21,615 inpatients and 528,414 outpatients in 2014.
At a rally Wednesday in Presence Saints Mary and Elizabeth Medical Center, 2233 W. Division St., Hennelly told some 200 workers gathered in the cafeteria that the cuts would be "devastating."
Folks like Avondale's Edna Villagas, who use Medicaid, represents close to two-thirds of the hospital's patients, Hennelly said.
Villegas, 28, a first-time mother, was transferred to Presence Hospital from a county-run clinic in the last 10 weeks of her high-risk pregnancy, visiting three times weekly for blood pressure checks and monitoring.
Villagas and newborn Emma, who slept through the entire rally (DNAinfo/Alisa Hauser)
The high-risk neonatal clinic sees between 16 to 19 patients like Villegas each day, about two-thirds of whom are on Medicaid, according to Sue Lambert, a Chief Nursing Officer who spoke with DNAinfo Chicago after the rally. The cuts would limit what services the hospital could provide to such patients.
At the rally, four poster-sized letters were signed by health-care workers from Presence, asking politicians to oppose the budget cuts. The letters, which already have thousands of signatures, will be sent to state legislators Rep. Will Guzzardi (D-Chicago), Sen. William Delgado (D-Chicago), Rep. Cynthia Soto (D-Chicago) and Sen. Iris Martinez (D-Chicago).
Reached by phone in Springfield, Guzzardi said he is "not in support of the proposed budget."
"The proposed cuts would be a disaster to families in my district and across our state. Overall the budget that [Rauner] has proposed contains so many unconscionable cuts to poor and working families. I struggle to find the right words to describe how harmful these cuts would be."
Guzzardi added, "We can't take these cuts year after year. We need to raise new revenue in the state of Illinois and ask for those at the top to pay their fair share."
Guzzardi said the 2016 budget could be voted on during the summer session. Before reaching Congress, the budget would first need to be approved by the Illinois General Assembly.
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