Earlier News Coverage

Shriver Center President and CEO Audra Wilson spoke about the new state budget and how it falls short of protecting Illinois residents with low income from expected federal spending cuts. Wilson said the state missed an important opportunity to fund supports for vulnerable communities through progressive revenue solutions.

Andrea Kovach, the Shriver Center’s senior attorney for healthcare justice, spoke to Stateline about penalties that states like Illinois may face for providing Medicaid to a small category of immigrants with temporary status. Illinois is one of 40 states that offers Medicaid to “humanitarian parolees,” people who are temporarily allowed into the United States due to a humanitarian need or because they pose a significant public benefit to the country.

Stephanie Altman, director of healthcare justice and senior director of policy, was quoted in a KFF Health News story about the Republicans’ “Big Beautiful Bill.” The legislation would gut Medicaid reimbursements to blue states like Illinois that insure undocumented people. Stephanie said it’s a clear indication of Trump and the Republicans’ “hostility against immigrants.”

Jeremy Rosen, the Shriver Center’s director of economic justice, told DeKalb, Illinois-based Northern Public Radio that Gov. Pritzker needs to address the potentially-devastating federal cuts to safety net programs like Medicaid. The Shriver Center, along with the Illinois Revenue Alliance, wants to tax billionaires and corporations to fund health coverage for immigrant adults and offset expected federal cuts.

A new study shows that the Illinois' Healthcare Benefits for Immigrant Adults (HBIA) program decreases the amount of unpaid debt that hospitals incur. Andrea Kovach, a senior attorney for healthcare justice at the Shriver Center, said the findings shows that cutting HBIA will burden the state's health system.

Congress has proposed cuts to Medicaid to reduce federal spending. However, this leaves more than 3.4 million Illinoisans at risk of losing coverage. Stephanie Altman, the director of healthcare justice and a senior director of policy, spoke to Reset about the implications.

Stephanie Altman, the Shriver Center’s director of healthcare justice and senior director of policy, discussed the detrimental effects that defunding Medicaid would have on public health and financial stability in Illinois. She highlighted the potential strain on underfunded hospitals serving low-income communities.

Andrea Kovach, a senior attorney for healthcare justice, warned that eliminating a state-run Medicaid-like health care program for immigrant adults would have a devastating impact on individuals and families across the state. “Cancer doesn’t care what someone’s immigration status is. Diabetes doesn’t go away because someone has a particular immigration status. So the cost will still be there,” Kovach said.

Wendy Pollack, the founder and director of the Shriver Center’s Women's Law and Policy Initiative, talked to NPR’s Andrea Hsu about the Trump administration’s reversal of the 1965 executive order forbidding most federal contractors from using discriminatory hiring practices. Pollack, a former union carpenter, said the “end of the executive order sets the stage for a very dire situation for women and people of color.”

An Illinois judge ruled against landlords who threatened to call ICE on tenants. The decision was based on a 2019 law passed by Gov. JB Pritzker that protects renters from retaliation based on their immigration status. Samir Hanna, the director of housing justice, told the USA TODAY that in states without these safeguards, landlords are more likely to mistreat immigrant tenants, "particularly as our current climate creates incentives for abuse.”

Stephanie Altman, the director of healthcare justice and senior policy director at the Shriver Center, talks about the devastating impact that cutting Medicaid would have on the state of Illinois.

In an essay for Crain’s Chicago Business, Stephanie Altman — the Shriver Center’s director of health care justice and senior director of policy — describes how defunding Medicaid would make people less healthy and more financially unstable. She says the cuts would have ripple effects across the state, leaving Illinoisans more vulnerable to public health emergencies and push many underfunded hospitals that serve low-income communities to the brink of bankruptcy.