FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 9, 2002

Hundreds of Nursing Home Employees Protest $110 Million Medicaid Cut
Rally Set for Thursday at County Courthouse Complex in Waukegan

(CHICAGO) -- Hundreds of health care employees and family members from Northern Illinois are gathering in Waukegan on Thursday, October 10th to protest the $110 million budget reduction in Medicaid funding to nursing home residents, that went into effect July 1^st of this year. The rally will be held at 11 a.m. at on the steps of Lincoln Plaza at the County Courthouse Complex, 18 N. County Street in Waukegan.

Three unions representing more than 15,000 employees -- International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 743, Service Employees International Union Local 4, and United Commercial Food Workers Local 1546 -- are sponsoring this "Rally to Restore Medicaid Funds."

Speaking at the rally will be Rev. James Meeks; Senator Terry Link, D-30, Vernon Hills; Representative Susan Garrett, Democratic Senate candidate for the 29^th District, Highland Park; and Representative Karen Yarbrough, D-7, Maywood, whose mother lives in a nursing home. They will be describing the cuts' devastating impact on the state's 57,000 Medicaid nursing home residents, which represent more than two-thirds of the total state nursing home population.

The Medicaid cut is the equivalent -- in just one year -- of 5,500 caregiver salaries. Because 79 percent of all nursing home costs are labor-related, the $110 million cut to Medicaid will inevitably lead to thousands of nursing home staff losing their jobs as Illinois nursing homes struggle to stay afloat. With fewer staff to provide care, the health and well-being of the state's nursing home residents are in peril.

"A reduction of $110 million can only mean fewer jobs, reduced benefits and a lot less services and care for the very sick -- who need more care, not less," said Elliot Miller, Business Agent for United Commercial Food Workers 1546. "The state is turning its back on its most frail and vulnerable residents."

Illinois is one of the ten largest economies in the country. Yet, with this cut to Medicaid, Illinois ranks 49^th in the nation for funding to nursing home residents, 27 percent below the national average.

"Nursing home employees are the advocates for the elderly who cannot take care of themselves and who cannot speak for themselves," said Robert Walston, President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. "Nursing home staff serve the needs of the state's elderly, and speak up on behalf of the clients they care for day in and day out. No one knows the needs of their clients better than the daily caregiver. That's why these employees are coming together on October 10th -- to rally on behalf of clients who are being hurt by this funding cut."

Nursing home employees are taking care of more complex cases and needier residents than ten years ago. With more technology and more staff, the cost of caring for nursing home residents has risen twice as fast in the past nine years as the state's Medicaid payments. In those nine years, costs of caring for residents have risen 61 percent while Medicaid rates have gone up less than half of that. That kind of cost pressure affects jobs, wages, benefits and, most important, care for residents.

Buses of nursing home caregivers and their families will be coming to Waukegan from all over Northern Illinois. The protestors want the state's legislators to show their "Commitment to Care" by restoring Medicaid funding to Illinois nursing home residents. They want legislators to make fair funding for nursing home residents a budgetary priority.

"The state budget should not be balanced on the backs of the frail and elderly nursing home residents of Illinois," said Ronald Walski, President of Service Employees International Union Local 4. "These nursing home residents represent our mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers -- people who have worked all their lives to build our families, our neighborhoods and our country. The state has the moral obligation to make good on its social promise to take care of these individuals."

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