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Affordable Health Care for the Poor: Is anyone out there? |
Current rating: 0 |
by John Hilty
Email: jhilty (nospam) shout.net (unverified!) |
14 Feb 2005
Modified: 10:26:19 PM |
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City government in Champaign-Urbana is Santa Claus to the business projects of local developers, but Ebeneezer Scrooge to affordable and timely health care for the poor. |
Here's a typical example of what's wrong with Urbana's current mayor, as well as Champaign's city government:
At the present time, there's a 6-month waiting list to see a family physician at Francis Nelson Health Center. Meanwhile, the physicians at Carle Clinic and Christie Clinic no longer accept Medicaid, and the poor without health insurance can't afford to see them anyway.
As a result, affordable out-patient health care services are no longer available to many members of our community on a timely basis. To accommodate the increased demand for their services, Francis-Nelson needs another facility with more space. This will cost approximately $1 million to acquire and refurbish. And so where will this money come from and how will the growing crisis of affordable and timely health care be resolved?
These issues were presented in a News-Gazette article earlier this year. When asked if the City of Champaign could do anything to resolve these problems, the city manager bluntly stated that it was not the city's responsibility to address any of these problems. Huh? It was little more than 10 years ago when the City of Champaign subsidized its own city hospital until Mayor McCollum pulled the rug out from under it. This hospital was abandoned and bulldozed over.
Meanwhile, what did Urbana's Mayor, Tod Satterthwaite, have to say about all of this? Tod merely shrugged his shoulders and said the City of Urbana didn't have any money available to assist Francis Nelson Health Center. He suggested that they would have to raise the money on their own to address the growing health care crisis in this community. And thus the mayor became the invisible man and walked away from this unfortunate crisis.
The problem with Tod's plea of poverty is this: the city government of Urbana had just approved $1 million in tax subsidies for the redevelopment of Lincoln Square Mall. This was one of the pet projects of the mayor and his cronies. Apparently, it is more important to subsidize upscale apartments or condos for the well-to-do, rather than provide any money toward basic health care services for the poor. Thanks to people like Urbana's mayor and Champaign's city manager, the poor will have to survive without health care in our community, it seems.
Also during this same week, the City of Champaign managed to find about $300,000 to subsidize the construction of more upscale apartments in downtown Champaign. How nice that these large chunks of money always seem to be available for local developers. Meanwhile, the poor, who also pay taxes, will have to wait at least 6 months before they can see a family physician to examine a medical condition or renew their prescription medications. And this includes not only able-bodied adults, but also many children, the elderly, and the disabled.
This is one of the reasons why we need another mayor in the City of Urbana. |
This work is in the public domain |
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Re: Affordable Health Care for the Poor: Is anyone out there? |
by voter
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
15 Feb 2005
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> the poor, who also pay taxes
... and are (mostly) eligible to vote as well. Where does Prussing stand on health care access, and do the affected voters understand her position? |
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Tod's Running on His Record |
by Dose of Reality
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
15 Feb 2005
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Tod is running on his record -- and on this issue it's clearly not good. We can see exactly where he stands from John's article. In addition, Tod's mantra is that "Urbana should be more like Champaign" -- and Champaign? Well, we can clearly see why nothing is being done with Tod in office.
Laurel Prussing will at least listen and seriously consider the issue. It would not surprise me if she would act to offer a modest amount of aid, which we can certainly afford given Tod's profligate offers of taxpayer money to wealthy investors. The only thing Tod will ever do is he might throw something at you. I'll take Laurel. |
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Re: Affordable Health Care for the Poor: Is anyone out there? |
by Local Yocal
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
15 Feb 2005
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Very ominous too, is the sudden appearance by Lynne Barnes for city council, who doesn't vote for 16 years, had up to now no interest in City government, and whose sole credential is she is vice-president of Carle Hospital. Some credential. Her silence during Carle's use of body attatchments to collect on medical debt from the poor is deafening. So too is her silence with regards to the discriminatory pricing Carle uses against the uninsured. She has nothing to say about Carle's past policy of hiding from low-income patients the fact that Charity Care even existed.
At a time when Carle hospital faces a massive class action lawsuit, and their tax-exempt property status will continue to be under scrutiny, it is a huge conflict of interest to elect a Vice-President of Carle Hospital to a taxing body that stands to gain from Carle being found unqualified for property tax exemption.
They say she has business savvy due to her role at Carle Hospital. If that's the case, she is a business savage when it comes to the treatment of the poor. Don't elect Lynne Barnes for City Council. There will be no healthcare coming from there. |
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Re: Affordable Health Care for the Poor: Is anyone out there? |
by Kirsten
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
28 Feb 2005
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actually, I just called Francis Nelson today to try to make an appointment to have some suspicious moles checked out (my mother died from malignant melanoma tumors so yes I am worried) and I was told OCTOBER was the earliest I could get in to see a doctor. So yeah, it's more like SEVEN months just to get in to see a doctor. I can't wait to see how they handle possible cancer cases there if they can't even get me in until october. very worried...
PS "Obvious" is obviously someone who this issue doesn't concern.
You need your health to work at a job and if someone is very sick and can't get the healthcare they need to make themselves better, that job that's supposed to restore their "dignity" isn't going to do them a damn bit of good if they can't get it because they're sick. Let's think about basic human priorities here folks. This is just ridiculous to think that the cost of these new fancy shiny apartments in Urbana is the same as what Francis Nelson is asking to fix some of their major problems. |
