Rally Against Medicaid Cuts Comes to Buffalo Grove

The Health Care Council of Illinois (HCCI), a leading voice for the nursing home community in Illinois, brought its multi-city bus tour to Buffalo Grove on Saturday to rally opposition to Gov. Pat Quinn’s proposed 6 percent cuts in Medicaid funding.

The rally, held at , took aim at across-the-board budget cuts that would impact nursing homes across the state.

“This is about the quality of care for our seniors, it’s about the safety of our nursing home residents and it’s about jobs,” Pat Comstock, executive director of HCCI, said. “Our Medicaid residents get more care than the state pays for and they have been for years. It just doesn’t work anymore. These cuts are equivalent to 7,000 critical direct care jobs.”

The budget proposed by Quinn would slash 6 percent of state Medicaid funding that nursing homes currently receive. But, the problem is actually larger than that, according to Comstock.

“Six percent translates to $70 million in state funds,” she said. “But, we also get matching funds from the federal government. That match would go away and we will end up losing a total of $140 million.”

That funding provides such care as specialized rehabilitation beds and restrictive diets for residents. Without those dollars, 7,000 senior care workers would lose their jobs, jeopardizing safety measures that were recently passed by the Illinois General Assembly, according to a HCCI press release .

“We have streamlined our operations to the max,” Comstock said. “These cuts will make it impossible to offer the same level of care as we do today. It’s just not possible. It cannot be done.”

“We understand the financial hole that the state is in,” Comstock said. “What we don’t understand is the shortsighted approach to fixing the problem.”

HCCI is touring the state to generate awareness for the campaign to Stop Cuts to Nursing Home Care. The multi-city tour is taking place from late April through early May and will rally nursing home staff, residents and residents’ families at 17 facilities around the common goal of ensuring quality care, safety and jobs.

The events will also honor elected officials who support initiatives that improve the quality of life for nursing home residents across the state and ask them to pledge to Stop Cuts to Nursing Home Care.

The Health Care Council of Illinois (HCCI) is a professional association of more than 500 nursing facilities committed to quality residential health care in Illinois through a productive and responsible partnership between the private and public sectors. HCCI represents more than 80,000 nursing home professionals serving more than 80,000 residents.