FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 16, 2002
Hundreds of Nursing Home Employees
Protest $110 Million Medicaid Cut
Rally Set for Thursday at City Hall and Courthouse in
Elgin
(CHICAGO) -- Hundreds of health care employees and
family members from northwestern suburban Illinois are
gathering in Elgin on Thursday, October 17th to protest
the $110 million budget reduction in Medicaid funding to
nursing home residents, that went into effect July 1st
of this year. The rally will be held at 12:00 p.m. at
the Elgin City Hall and Courthouse, 150 Dexter Court.
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,
executive vice-president of Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, and
Senate candidate Bob Steffen, D-22, of Elgin. 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
49th 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 Elgin from all over northwest suburban
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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