From the Chicago Sun-Times: 

By Maudlyne Ihejirika

In the wake of a judge’s order that state payments to Cook County hospitals relying heavily on Medicaid funds must continue during the state budget standoff, community leaders rallied at South Side Roseland Community Hospital to demand a resolution that goes beyond that temporary reprieve.

“We’re here today for one common cause, to sound off as a community,” said the Rev. Charles Mickens, one of several South Side pastors who led the rally of over 100 people in front of the Far South Side hospital. “We’re the voices crying in the wilderness. We’re here to say to Gov. Rauner that we do not want a much needed hospital in our community to close under any circumstance.”

Roseland, among less than a handful of hospitals in South Side black communities still serving a largely poor population, was cited in a federal lawsuit brought this week by the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty as one hospital that soon could be forced to shut down due to funding delays.

The Shriver Center successfully argued that under a consent decree, the state must continue Medicaid payments to Cook County hospitals during the budget crisis. And a federal judge ruled Thursday that the state has to continue those payments to those hospitals even though the state has no budget in place. The ruling predominantly affects some 700,000 children in Cook County enrolled in Medicaid.

“I sat down with Gov. Rauner yesterday, probably about 30 minutes after the federal courts ruled that he must pay Roseland Hospital, and I can tell you, he wasn’t a happy camper,” said State Sen. Emil Jones III, whose district includes Roseland.

“He wasn’t excited that as long as Roseland was still getting some funds, negotiations could still continue. These are federal funds that come from Washington, that have nothing to do with our state budget,” Jones said. “He could have just passed the funds through to these safety net hospitals without a problem. But he had to be forced to do it. What does that tell you? He’s a narcissist. With your help, we will fight these cuts, and let Gov. Rauner know we will not accept this.”

Speaker after speaker, including Roseland CEO Tim Egan and patients at the hospital, railed against Rauner’s proposed cuts in social services, before rally participants linked arms and lined up along 111th street, some holding up signs reading, “#BlackLivesMatter” and “#RoselandMatters.”

Read the full article from the Chicago Sun-Times