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PROPOSED RESOLUTION
RESOLUTION URGING GOVERNOR RAUNER TO SUPPORT ROSELAND COMMUNITY HOSPITAL BY IMMEDIATELY RELEASING FULL FUNDING-AND SUPPORTING CONTINUED FULL FUNDING IN THE STATE BUDGET-TO ALLOW THE INSTITUTION TO CONTINUE PROVIDING VITAL AND LIFE-SAVING SERVICES FOR THE COMMUNITY
WHEREAS, Roseland Community Hospital has been a life-saving anchor for 90 years, serving a community that is over 98% African-American and that suffers a poverty rate that is nearly 1.8 times that of the Illinois state average-and an extreme poverty rate more than double the state average.
WHEREAS, Roseland Community Hospital is located in a healthcare desert and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has designated it as serving a medically underserved area/population, and as a primary care, mental health and dental health professional shortage area.
WHEREAS, should Roseland Community Hospital be forced to close due to the current funding crisis, residents would have to travel five miles to the next closest hospital, Advocate Trinity, and nearly eight miles to the nearest trauma center, Advocate Christ, putting residents with life-threatening conditions at a greatly increased risk of death or negative health outcome.
WHEREAS, past funding shortfalls and the current state budget crisis have already decimated vital support programs in the Roseland community, leaving Roseland Community Hospital as the only institution still standing from which residents can receive life saving care and support.
WHEREAS, the Rauner administration has chosen to stop payments to Roseland Community Hospital, including both State and Federal Medicaid funding, despite public appeals by the community and community advocates that the administration continue these life-saving payments.
WHEREAS, without such payments, Roseland Community Hospital is at immediate risk of layoffs, service shutdowns and institutional closure.
WHEREAS, despite the intervention of a Federal judge ordering the continued flow of Federal Medicaid funding the the institution, Roseland Community Hospital continues to face the risk of closure, and its residents an increased risk of death and devastating health outcomes, due to the lack of current state funding and the threat of funding cuts in the state budget currently being negotiated.
WHEREAS, the refusal of the Rauner administration and the state legislature to seek out progressive revenue solutions greatly increases the risk that Roseland Community Hospital will face continued funding shortages in the future.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Cook County Board of Commissioners calls upon Governor Bruce Rauner to release all necessary funds to keep Roseland Community Hospital fully funded for the present-and for the Governor and the state legislature to fully fund the hospital in the upcoming budget through progressive revenue-so that the hospital is able to continue to provide vital services to the community.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that a copy of this resolution be presented to the Secretary of State of the State of Illinois, the Clerk of the House of the Illinois House of Representatives, and the Secretary of the Senate of the Illinois Senate.end