First Health Care Justice Act Hearing Set for October 5

The Illinois Adequate Health Care Task Force will hold its first public hearing on October 5 in the first Illinois congressional district. Starting at 4:00 p.m. and lasting until approximately 7:00 p.m., task force members will hear from the public about their health care access problems in Illinois and their ideas about how to structure a comprehensive health care access plan for Illinois.

Under the Health Care Justice Act passed by the General Assembly in 2004, the task force is charged with developing a health care access plan that insures that “all residents have access to quality health care at costs that are affordable.” In the months after the Act’s passage, Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Senate and House leaders appointed 29 people to the task force. With appointments complete and operational funding of $1 million included in the 2006 fiscal year state budget, the task force met in August and early September to plan the hearing process. The task force will hold nineteen public hearings, one in each of Illinois’s congressional districts, between now and next spring. It also will hold meetings to hear from health care advocates, provider groups, and various experts on selected topics. All hearings and meetings are open to the public. Information about the task force and its schedule as well as written transcripts of the hearings will be available on the Illinois Department of Public Health website, www.idph.state.il.us.

For more information, check the Campaign for Better Health Care’s website, or contact Margaret Stapleton, Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, at 312.368.3327.