Letters

How did lawmakers do?

Editor: I would like to commend you on the series of articles on health care in Illinois. The articles correctly identified urban and rural areas as sharing the burden of a fragmented and collapsing health care system and the lackadaisical approach to reform by the state government. With little commitment to health care by legislators it is not surprising we have the problems we do.

I would like to suggest an evaluation of this latest legislative session and the General Assembly's performance regarding health care. With the controversy over Medicaid funding at the forefront of the budget battle, your readership would be interested in a commentary on legislative actions as well as answers to the following questions:

Did proposed legislation address Illinois' health care problem with viable alternatives or were short-term "band-aid" solutions more readily offered?

Did the political fervor to balance the budget disregard those who rely on the services that would be trimmed or cut, and did Medicaid recipients draw the short stick again?

Did the state not realize it was on the same side as the IHA or did it chastise the organization for its audacity to make a legislative suggestion?

Were physician assistants and other mid-level medical practitioners properly evaluated as a means of alleviating the medical crisis in Health Manpower Shortage Areas? Was their impact in these situations sufficiently determined?

Was thorough consideration given to promoting mid-level medical practioners in areas that lack a primary physician?

These questions reflect growing public concern about the responsibility of elected officials when dealing with public problems. I look forward to your comments.

Julie Staroba Account Executive Agenda Communications Chicago

Dear Readers: Illinois Issues will continue to focus on health care in Illinois. Editor

Editor's Note: Readers will find the 1990 Illinois Issues Index in the center of this magizine. We believe the redesigned index is the most complete and functional that we have ever prepared.

Correction: An item in our August/September issue incorrectly identified the president of Chicago State University as Delores Jackson. The president of Chicago State University is Dolores Cross, the first woman to head an Illinois public university. President Cross assumed her post on August 1, 1990.

4/October 1991/Illinois Issues