Health & Medicine (HMPRG)

HMPRG Case Study on Freestanding Birth Centers in New Public Health Book

Download the promotional flyer for MASTERING PUBLIC HEALTH: ESSENTIAL SKILLS FOR EFFECTIVE PRACTICE, Edited by BARRY S. LEVY and JOYCE R. GAUFIN. (Please feel free to circulate this to people who may be interested in the book.)

Quentin Young, MD and Margie Schaps, MPH, HMPRG Founder/Chairman and Executive Director, respectively, have a small section in the book using HMPRG's work on Freestanding Birth Centers as a case study in advocacy.

Publication is scheduled for October so that books will be available at the Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association.

Click on image to enlarge

 Download the promotional flyer

 

July 19th UIC Citywide Summit on Physical Fitness: Reshaping Chicago Together

Our friends at UIC are holding a citywide summit exploring ways to get all Chicagoans involved in healthy physical activity everyday.

Download the flyer

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In Chicago? The Albert Schweitzer Fellows for Life "Leadership by Example" Lecture Series Presents Peace Activitst, Kathy Kelly

Downlod the flyer

Peace activist Kathy Kelly believes non-violence necessarily involves simplicity, service, sharing of resources and non-violent direct action in resistance to war and oppression. She is a founder and co-coordinator for Voices for Creative Nonviolence, a campaign to end U.S. military and economic warfare.

Loyola University Chicago - Beane Hall
111 E. Pearson Street, 13th Floor
Tues., Jul. 26, 2011 6:00pm
Free. Reservations strongly recommended.
RSVP to: rsvp@hmprg.org or call 312 372-4292 ext. 24

June 14th Article in Chicago Tribune on on Medical Home Network and Impact on Medicaid Patients

This article appeared in June 14th Chicago Tribune.

Dowload the full article

Coordinating care Medical Home Network will link hospitals, clinics and doctors serving Medicaid patients

June 14, 2011|By Judith Graham, Tribune reporter

In an unprecedented effort to improve medical care on the Southwest Side, the Cook County Health and Hospitals System, five private hospitals, and dozens of clinics and physician practices have agreed to cooperate in bolstering basic care for Medicaid patients.

Their venture, known as the Medical Home Network, represents one of the most ambitious attempts in the U.S. to restructure the way care is delivered to vulnerable families covered by Medicaid, the government's health program for the poor. Read the full article

IN CHICAGO? SAVE THE DATE - THURSDAY, JULY 28 - FOR A GREAT BOOK SIGNING & AUTHOR DISCUSSION WITH DR. DAVID ANSELL AND JOHN DITTMER

Save the Date – Thursday, July 28, 2011

Book Signing and Author Discussion with:

 

Chicago physician and activist, David Ansell, author of County: Life, Death and Politics at Chicago’s Public Hospital

The website for the book: http://www.countythebook.com/about-the-book

A recent Chicago Tribune Article about County and the book: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-06-03/news/ct-perspec-0605-cook-20110603_1_health-care-poor-patients-active-labor-act

DePauw University historian, John Dittmer, author of The Good Doctors: The Medical Committee for Human Rights and the Struggle for Social Justice in Health Care

University website article about the book: https://www.depauw.edu/news/index.asp?id=23362

YouTube interview about the book: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyavRXdmRFU

 

Date: Thursday, July 28, 2011

Time: 5:30 PM – 8:00 PM

Location: Grace Place

637 S. Dearborn

Chicago, IL

(Beer, Wine, soft drinks and light refreshments will be served)

Books will be available for purchase and signing

 Download the flyer

Co-sponsored by

 

Directions: Grace Church is located at 637 South Dearborn Street, between Harrison and Polk (one block north of the historic Dearborn Station).  The venue is easily accessible by public transit. The church is within easy walking distance of several CTA El lines and stops: (Red) Harrison; (Brown, Orange, Purple) Library/State and Van Buren, and (Blue) LaSalle. Several CTA bus lines, including the 22 Clark, 36 Broadway, 62 Archer, 24 Wentworth and 29 State routes, stop within two blocks of Grace.

Chicago's Dr. David Ansell on NPR Yesterday, Speaking About the Medically Underinsured

Read transcript and/or listen to the interview.

Dr. Ansell, author of the recently published County: Life, Death and Politics at Chicago’s Public Hospital and De Pauw historian, John Dittmer, author of The Good Doctors: The Medical Committee for Human Rights and the Struggle for Social Justice in Health Care will  have a discussion and book signing in Chicago on Thursday, July 28, 2011, at Grace Place, 637 S. Dearborn from 5:30PM-8:00PM. (Light Refreshments, Beer, Wine and soft drinks will be served.) Books will be avilable for purchase and sigbing.  (Co-sponsored ny HMPRG and PNHP)

 

Health & Medicine Participates in Social Security Meeting with Rep Schakowsky

Last Friday, Health & Medicine attend a meeting that Citizen Action Illinois hosted with Representative Jan Schakowsky to talk about the current political battles against American economic security--namely the fight to end Social Security. 

Lately, Congressmen have been proposing many different measures to change the way Social Security operates.  While Social Security is in a $2.6 Trillion surplus, it's true that without any reforms it will not be able to pay out full benefits starting in 2037.

The problem is that some of the reforms proposed are taking advantage of the most vulnerable individuals in our country.  For example, raising the retirement age.  If we raise the retirement age, this represents a benefit cut for all Social Security beneficiaries--less time receiving benefits.  Although some may argue that everyone is living longer, this simply is not true. And according to an AARP In-Brief report on raising the Social Security age, those who choose to take Social Security at a younger age are in poorer health, are less educated, and are more likely to have physically demanding jobs.  Raising the retirement age negatively impacts these already vulnerable individuals--putting their economic security in retirement at risk.

Health & Medicine Policy Research Group is committed to promiting social justice and giving voice to the most disadvantaged.  Health & Medicine, as the Illinois Elder Economic Security Initiative (EESI) partner with Wider Opportunities for Women, will continue to participate in the fight to preserve Social Security.

Do you think the Social Security age should stay the same? Call you Senator right now and tell him.  It's as easy as saying your name, where you live, and that you do not support any reform to Social Security that raises the retirement age. Easy!

Senator Dick Durbin: (312) 353-4952

Senator Mark Kirk: (312) 886-3506

 

For more information on what Health & Medicine is doing, and if you want to get more involved to advocate for Social Security, please contact Kristen Pavle, Policy Analyst @ Health & Medicine's Center for Long-Term Care Reform: Email Kristen here, or call 312.372.4292 x 27.

Quentin Young's Press TV Interview on Charity Care

Press TV, June 9, 2011

Listen to the interview

Not-for-profit hospitals unfairly receiving tax exemptions

By Dr. Quentin Young

In this era of tight public funds afflicting virtually every state in the nation, there is one revenue source that has been all but neglected in the public debate: the subsidy of "not for profit" private hospitals by exemption from sales and property taxes being the typical form.

This has been reexamined by the remarkable Illinois Supreme Court decision in the Provena Covenant case: the court ruled that the Provena hospital group failed to meet the charitable health care provision required to enjoy the property and sales tax freedom they had enjoyed.

Illinois law requires nonprofit hospitals to provide charity care (free or reduced care) which eases the financial toll on government -- and nothing less -- to qualify for property tax exemption. When nonprofit hospitals fail to provide charity, some poor, uninsured, and underinsured patients find themselves in public hospitals funded by public dollars and stretched beyond capacity. This failure to meet legal requirements results in the loss of tens of billions of tax dollars across the nation at a time of great national need.

Other patients afraid to incur debt they can't repay, delay their medical treatment, adding to its eventual cost and jeopardizing their health outcomes if not their lives.

In the current recession, budgets at every level of government are strained and people are in peril. The Illinois Supreme Court has decided that non profit hospitals must deploy the public funds they are given to support the public health safety net both the poor and the taxpaying public deserve.

Dr. Quentin Young is the chairman of the Health & Medicine Policy Research Group. He spoke to Press TV's U.S. Desk on Wednesday about his article.

Progress Illinois Runs Article on Charity Care

This post on charity care appeared in today's Progress Illinois

Download the article

Advocates Slam Non-Profit Hospitals For Lack Of Charity Care

The Fair Care Coalition held a rally to call on the state Dept. of Revenue to rethink property tax exemptions to some non-profit hospitals. In a letter to Illinois Dept. of Revenue Director Brian Hamer, the advocacy group cited a 2009 Center for Tax and Budget Accountability study that showed the amount of charity care to the poor and uninsured by non-profit hospitals in Cook County only represented 36 percent of the value in their tax exemptions. This, the group said, means so-called not-for-profit hospitals are actually making record profits from the millions via tax breaks and subsidies. Read the full article

Read Quentin Young's Front Page Firedoglake Post on How Nonprofit Hospitals Receive Tax Exemptions

Download the firedoglake post

Not-for-Profit Hospitals unfairly receiving Tax Exemptions

By: Dr. Quentin Young Wednesday June 8, 2011 3:04

In this era of tight public funds afflicting virtually every state in the nation, there is one revenue source that has been all but neglected in the public debate: the subsidy of “not for profit” private hospitals by exemption from sales and property taxes being the typical form.

This has been reexamined by the remarkable Illinois supreme court decision in the Provena Covenant case: the Court ruled that the Provena hospital group failed to meet the charitable health care provision required to enjoy the property and sales tax freedom they had enjoyed. Read the full post