Gov. JB Pritzker says protecting Medicaid from possible federal funding cuts is critical for Illinois.
During a Friday stop in Peoria on a statewide tour attacking Trump administration policies, the second-term Democrat said 3.4 million Illinoisans are covered by Medicaid one way or another.
“These are working parents and they're seniors. They're people with disabilities. They're our friends, they're our neighbors, people that we care about,” said Pritzker. “Medicaid covers nearly half of our state's children's health care — half. It's the largest insurer for people who live in nursing homes.
“So don't think of this program as being, ‘Oh, this is just a program for poor people, Medicaid.’ It is, and it is for our very vulnerable, but it's for a whole lot of people. And I guarantee we all know somebody, or lots of people, that are on Medicaid.”
Pritzker participated in a community discussion on the health care funding program at the EPIC facility on Townline Road, joined by Medicaid recipients, health care providers, home aides and other advocates.
“Medicaid is at the heart of the American social contract,” said Ai-Jen Poo, president of the National Domestic Workers Alliance and the director of Caring Across Generations coalition. “It's a promise we make to each other and to future generations that we will take care of each other and we will take care of each other from one generation to the next.”
Pritzker said efforts by Republicans in the Congress to trim $880 billion from the federal budget likely would target programs such as Medicaid, Medicare, and potentially Social Security, to absorb those cuts.
He said reductions in Medicaid would threaten rural hospitals that depend on the funding to stay open, affecting as many as 445,000 full-time employees.
“Illinois is doing all that we can to bolster access to health care,” he said. “That's what we ought to be doing, expanding health care, not cutting back. We ought to be investing in our health care infrastructure. We ought to be erasing hundreds of millions of dollars in medical debt.”
EPIC, which stands for “Empowering People, Inspiring Capabilities” and uses an exclamation point for the “I” in its stylized name, provides support and care for about 500 individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
“Medicaid pays for more than just health care for the people that we serve,” said Kim Cornwell, EPIC’s president and CEO. “It pays for skilled professionals to assist them in their homes with self-care, meal preparation, medication administration, transportation and support when they work, volunteer and get involved in their communities.”
Cornwell said Medicaid funding covers about 82% of EPIC’s $25.1 million budget.
“It would be catastrophic if this funding for these vital services were cut,” she said.
