Results tagged “healthcare”

While the House narrowly passed health care reform over the weekend, both the president and Senate Democrats were looking ahead to the next round. And while it appears that there will be at least a cursory fight over abortion funding in the Senate version of the bill, there seems to be a real concern over the ability of lining up 60 votes to pass the bill.

There was plenty going on this weekend in the news but we understand if you missed it and were, instead, outside enjoying the amazing warm weather. Here's your chance to catch up.

• Sen. Burris continues to be in the health care debate spotlight thanks to his stance on a public option. Well, sort of.
• The Sun-Times discovers commuting by bike.
• Clean-up continues of a major freight train derailment in the Glenview area.

The national debate over health care reform has dragged on for so long, across so many different proposals, that it's hard to keep track of what the Senate or the House might be considering this week. But here in Chicago, the very real cost associated with covering employees is manifesting itself in very direct ways. Unite Here Local 1, the union that represents hotel and hospitality workers in the city is in negotiations over the labor agreement that will cover 6,000 workers downtown, and 15,000 workers in the area. And while the contract expired in August, both the union and the hotels around town are still far from an agreement. Like they did three years ago, the union is negotiating with the major hotel chains separately this year, starting with Hyatt. Unlike in 2006, when Unite Here was able to make gains on the wage increases they bargained in 2003, employers are pushing for concessions this time, due in part to the recession. "Things have gotten really bad," Unite Here Local 1 spokeswoman Annemarie Strassel told the Tribune. "I think that employers see the bad economy as an opportunity to ram through proposals." Hyatt's proposal would leave half of their unionized employees ineligible for health insurance.

Remember U.S. Sen. Roland Burris? He was all the talk here, there, and everywhere in the first half of 2009 for all the wrong reasons. But now he finds himself in the Capitol Hill spotlight once more but this time for reasons actually pertaining to legislation. Burris is now making waves for his refusal to support any health care reform plan that doesn't include a public option. Why does this matter? Because if Burris sticks to his gun - and why not? He's not running for re-election and has nothing to lose - that could mean Senate Democrats won't have the 60 votes necessary (there are 58 Dems and two independents in the U.S. Senate, currently) to stop a Republican filibuster. The Associated Press says this in a profile (via Crain's):

• In light of yesterday's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, a bankruptcy court judge has once more given the okay for the Cubs to be sold to the Ricketts family.
• If, in a few months, you feel like your copy of the Chicago Tribune is shrinking, you're not imagining it.
• An Indiana National Guard soldier committed suicide in a Muncie, Indiana movie theater last night.

As we listed in yesterday's "Extra Extra," seven protesters were arrested yesterday in the sales office of Cigna Insurance at 525 W Monroe. Participants of a nationwide campaign for single-payer health care called Patients Not Profits formed a small picket line outside of the office. Seven picketers then entered the building and demanded to speak with Cigna's CEO. When denied, they sat down in the lobby and chanted “patients not profits” and "Cigna is the real death panel" until they were escorted out by police.

T-Pain gives President Obama a hand making his health care proposal sound better.

President Barack Obama is on a whirlwind media tour this weekend to help promote his health care reform bill. Below is his appearance on NBC's Meet The Press, one of the many stops he made for this morning's news shows. He'll also be the lone guest tomorrow night on The Late Show with David Letterman.

          

Last night, President Obama addressed a joint-session of Congress and the American public to make his case for his health care reform plan, addressed controversies such as the "death panel" accusation, and mixed the usual Obama pragmatism with a bit more of a hard-line stance (the Sun-Times' Lynn Sweet called it "a magnificent balancing act"). You can watch the speech below in its entirety and read the full text here.

9th District Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky held a town hall meeting on health care reform this week, where she was met by both supporters and opponents of the legislation. Among the opponents of reform were several in the crowd that booed the late Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy.

"Man, November 4, 2008 seems so far away now. Try to set up a little universal health care and everyone goes crazy..."

While the national news has been chock-full of stories of angry anti-health care reform activists storming town hall meetings with congressmen, the local news won't be carrying any of those stories soon, at least not starring U.S. Senator Dick Durbin and 19th District Congressman John Shimkus. “I won’t be doing sucker-punch town hall meetings,” Democrat and Senate Majority Whip Durbin said. “They can do all the political theater they want, but I don’t have to supply the stage for them.”

With all the hubbub over Wal-Mart going on in these parts recently, we're not surprises there's more news to add and this time it'll raise even more eyebrows. According to WBEZ, Dr. John Agwunobi, a senior vice-president of the company whose unit includes the company’s health clinics, spoke in Chicago at this weekend's National Council of La Raza and said the company supports a part of President Obama's healthcare proposal that includes coverage for all workers. But Agwunobi also said the company wants healthcare for illegal immigrants. When asked if they support healthcare for illegal immigrants, Agwunobi answered, "We believe strongly that everyone should have access to affordable health insurance. Everyone." [WBEZ]

NBC Nightly News last night featured a pair of local doctors giving back to the community.

President Obama is about to start a press conference in the White House Rose Garden, his first from that location. Expected topics of interest will include Iran and health care. You can follow it here starting at 11:30 a.m.

     

Much was made yesterday morning about the cost of President Obama's quick trip back to Chicago for his speech before the American Medical Association's annual meeting, pitching his proposed health care reform plan. But the speech itself was received warmly for the most part. Calling the current cost of health care a "ticking time-bomb" and while not supporting caps on malpractice lawsuits, Obama did call for improvements to the system that would:

With health care always in the news, President Obama is going to make a return trip to Chicago next week to address the annual meeting of the American Medical Association House of Delegates in person. Last week, the AMA - along with several other supporting organizations - published an open letter to President Obama [PDF] about their hopes and suggestions for health care reform. The House of Delegates meeting takes place June 13 through 17th, following on the heels of the general AMA convention, which begins tomorrow and runs through Saturday.

The Chi-Town Daily News continues to be the best source we've seen covering the county's current mental and health care crisis. Establishing an oversight committee and having a pre-approved hospital vendor lists are just a few of the goals the new Cook County Health and Hospital Systems CEO wants to tackle. In his first public board meeting, CEO William Foley gave his three-, six- and 12-month goals for the health system Friday morning. Giving a time line for each plan, Foley said by Sept. 1 the health system will have reached an agreement "with a group purchasing organization, which provides pre-approved vendors from which the hospital can buy supplies," Chi-Town Daily News reports.

Sinai Health System announced Tuesday that the Chicago Housing Authority had approved a land swap with the hospital. As part of the deal, the CHA will give Sanai a parcel of land bounded by Ogden, Washtenaw and Fairfield Avenues. In exchange, the hospital will give the CHA a parcel of land at 15th and California. The hospital plans to build a 200,000 square-foot expansion outpatient center at Ogden and California, and a parking lot. Sinai also plans to build a 900,000 square-foot hospital at 12th and Washtenaw, but likely won't be able to finance the development for some years. The deal involved no cash.

Todd Stroger's figured out that he may be in some deep trouble come election day in Cook County. There are myriad reasons for this, from the exorbitant tax hikes we've suffered to the lack of quality county services we're ostensibly paying for, to the sheer arrogance of his administration as they've filled the county's payroll with friends and family while calling critics racists. But Stroger isn't worried about any of that, at least not if his latest series of personnel moves are any indication. To wit, Stroger personally hired convicted check-kiter and one-time steakhouse busboy Tony Cole. Cole, who was convicted of writing bad checks in Georgia, was hired as a $58,000-a-year administrative assistant in the budget department and later promoted to a $61,000-a-year human resources assistant posistion in the highway department. Stroger fired Cole when the Sun-Times revealed the conviction. Late last week Stroger fired his Chief Financial Officer and cousin, Donna Dunnings, because of "explosive" and "not flattering" allegations that Cole made, which Stroger felt would interfere with her ability to do her job.

Cleveland Tyson of Buffalo Grove was awarded $56.25 million this week for his role as a whistleblower. Tyson used to work for Amerigroup, a Medicaid provider, and his testimony revealed Amerigroup was not insuring pregnant women and sick people—even though the government was paying them to do so. The government sued the company for over $300 million, and this week Amerigroup settled the suit for $225 million.

Just a week after Todd Stroger announced his nine nominees to head up the independent board that will operate the county hospitals, it was revealed that the former head of the Health Services Bureau is still calling the shots. Stroger said that Dr. Robert Simon had conducted the interviews for those nine candidates. Simon resigned his position as head of the Health Services Bureau last month. Just as quickly, he was given a contract to be a "consultant" to the new independent county hospital board. Simon, a long-time friend of the Stroger family, is being paid $6,000 a month for that consulting work. He earned $26K a month as director of the Health Services Bureau.

Remember that independent board that is supposed to assume control of Cook County's Health Services Bureau? The one that is supposed to separate politics from public health care delivery? Turns out, it might not be so independent after all.

CVS owes America $36.7 million.

Late Friday, Todd Stroger and nine other county commissioners worked to close the Cook County budget for 2008. The compromise deal doubled the county parking taxes and raised the sales tax to 1.75 percent - making Chicago one of the highest taxed cities in the nation. Those tax hikes, coupled with an agreement to cede control of the county Health Services Bureau to an independent oversight panel yielded the elusive ninth vote that Stroger had been seeking to pass his budget. Larry Suffredin, who brokered the health services deal, was the swing vote.

The Cook County Board of Commissioners had a contentious meeting yesterday as they tried to resolve a looming budget shortfall of nearly $300 million. The board must pass a budget by Feb 29 or face a partial shut down of the county government.

It was pretty much inevitable that discussions about the NIU shooting would turn to gun control. And turn they have.

In the category of unstoppable diseases, ten cases of a drug-resistant flu have been diagnosed at a Chicago-area health care facility. The name of the facility has not been released. But the emergence of a flu strain that is not responding to Tamiflu, the most popular front-line anti-viral medication, is causing concern among health officials.