ROSELAND — Just a day after a federal judge ordered the state to release some Medicaid payments to health care providers despite the budget impasse in Springfield, community members, Roseland Community Hospital employees and elected officials held a Black Lives Matter rally Friday.
The group of about 50, which included religious and political leaders, rallied against the proposed state budget cuts that would affect the Roseland Community Hospital. The press conference took place across the street from the hospital at 45 W. 111th St. Elected officials such as Sen. Emil Jones III (D-Chicago), Rep. Mary E. Flowers (D-Chicago) and Sen. Donne E. Troter (D-Chicago) attended.
“What we have today is a major crisis,” Flowers said. She said she’s thankful for the ruling, which would allow the hospital remain open in the short term, but that proposed state budget cuts could still sink a hospital that's seen as essential to an impoverished and vulnerable community.
Flowers said, “What about the aged, what about the blind, the disabled, what are we going to do about them when they present themselves at Roseland Hospital?"
The 85-year-old institution serves a predominantly African American community on the South Side. The court order would release temporary funds that wouldn't solve the bigger problem, organizers of the protest said, which are the impending funding cuts in Rauner's proposed state budget.
Many held signs that read “Black Lives Matter” and “Roseland Matters.”
"We must let the governor know we will not be turned away the way he wants to turn us around, that black lives really do matter," Flowers said.
Flowers added, "If a person is presented in this hospital and they die as a result of his budget cuts, there is no Lazarus, there is no resurrection, that death is permanent, that death is on [Rauner's] watch.”
Hospital CEO Tim Egan said on Friday that he has high hopes that the judge will require that all Medicaid payments be released. The Tribune reported that, while the details of the court order were still being worked out, providers that treat only adults (and not children) would not receive Medicaid payments.
“We are hoping this is going to be a permanent solution, that they are going to continue releasing all funds for Medicaid, including the provider tax assessment which is very important for our budget purposes,” he said. “We hope this solves our problem going forward.”
Trenese Bland is a hospital worker and Roseland resident. She said if the hospital closed, it would hurt the entire community, including herself.
“This is where I work, this is how I pay my bills, this is how I take care of my kids, and plus it’s the only hospital in the community. So whenever someone gets hurt, this is where they come,” she said.
Bland said the hospital is an essential “stabilizer” — while it doesn’t have a trauma center, it stabilizes patients until they can get to a hospital that can handle their situation.
Wendy Jones, 56, knows all too well how the hospital saves lives. Without it, she said her mother would have died. A few years ago her mother wasn’t feeling well and ended up having a heart attack in the emergency room, she said.
“Roseland Hospital is a life-saving hospital. We can’t afford to have it close,” she said.
On Wednesday, Egan said the hospital may have to close because lawmakers weren’t able to agree on a 2016 budget before Illinois entered a new fiscal year, which started July 1.
On Thursday, a federal judge ordered the state to release Medicaid payments to health care providers despite the budget impasse at the state’s capital. The state had told providers earlier this month that it couldn’t pay them without a budget for the 2016 fiscal year. Egan wasn’t having it, and he lashed out at lawmakers, saying that the hospital only had enough money to make its July 31 payroll. Before Thursday’s ruling, the hospital faced the loss of $2 million in Medicaid payments for July.
"Roseland Hospital will receive its Medicaid payments under Thursday's court orders, but this continues to highlight the need for a balanced budget and reforms to state government that will up resources to help the most vulnerable," said Catherine Kelly, a spokeswoman for Gov. Bruce Rauner's office, in a statement.
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