Who:
- Representative Delia Ramirez (D) — 4th District
- Representative Lisa Hernandez (D) — 24th District
- Representative Dagmara Avelar (D) — 85th District
- Senator Omar Aquino (D) — 2nd District (invited)
- Members of the Healthy Illinois Campaign: Shriver Center on Poverty Law, The Resurrection Project, Illinois Primary Health Care Association, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant & Refugee Rights
What:
A press conference to call on lawmakers to fund Healthy Illinois for All, to provide a pathway to coverage for all, regardless of immigration status. Healthy Illinois for All would make Illinois the first state in the nation to provide comprehensive, affordable health coverage to approximately 149,000 uninsured low-income immigrants – primarily undocumented adults and Legal Permanent Residents (with that status less than 5 years) in Illinois, ages 19-54, <138% FPL, who are still excluded from the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and federal-Medicaid coverage.
When:
10:00 AM, Tuesday, April 5, 2022
Where:
Blue Room, Illinois State Capitol, Springfield, IL, and livestream
Why:
Illinois made history in 2020 becoming the first state in the nation to provide healthcare to immigrants regardless of status beginning at age 65. The 2020 win established a state funded Medicaid-like program for seniors with household incomes of up to 100% FPL ($1,133 per month for an individual). In 2021, IL passed a second expansion to low-income immigrant adults aged 55-64 with household income at or below 138% FPL ($1,563 per month for an individual). This expansion would provide coverage to the remaining uninsured, age 19 through 54.
- There are 149,000 low-income uninsured Illinoisans who have no options for healthcare coverage.
- COVID-19 shows our public health is interdependent: healthcare access for all ensures the health of all Illinoisans.
- As of 2019, roughly one out of seven Illinoisans (14%) were immigrants.
- Immigrant-led households paid $13.4 billion in federal taxes, $8.0 billion in state and local taxes, and injected over $50.2 billion in spending power into our economy.
- HB 4437 will decrease health care providers’ cost of care to the uninsured. Being uninsured delays care and testing, which translates into avoidable emergency room visits and hospitalizations which in turn translates into sky-rocketing charity care costs borne primarily by safety-net hospitals. In FY2020, an estimated $870 million in charity care was provided by Illinois’s 200 hospitals; over one-fourth of that total ($236 million) was provided by Cook County Health’s Stroger and Provident Hospitals.