Say no to Medicaid employment requirements

Illinois residents rely on Medicaid to access quality and affordable healthcare. One provision under discussion will increase barriers to health care called “employment requirements”.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 91% of individuals in the Medicaid expansion cohort are workers, caregivers, students, or people who are unable to work due to illness. This requirement is not about the job. It was about adding unnecessary and burdensome paperwork that resulted in people losing coverage due to bureaucracy.

Other provisions being discussed as part of debt ceiling talks would remove tax incentives for clean energy or open the door to developing more polluting energy sources, such as coal and gas, while weakening the public's right to be involved in such licensing decisions. Already more than 1 in 3 Americans live with unhealthy air. Adding more pollution will exacerbate health problems.

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As the chair of public policy for the Midwest American Lung Association, I know firsthand the importance of health care and clean air for people living with chronic illnesses such as asthma and COPD. If these provisions hold, more people could face poor air quality or lost health care coverage, leaving them unable to manage their chronic lung disease, resulting in more dire and more expensive care down the road.

This provision will especially harm persons with disabilities, children, individuals who are pregnant and the elderly in nursing homes. I ask US Senators Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin to reject Medicaid's proposed work and build additional pollutant energy, to better protect the health of all Illinois residents.

John Maples, American Lung Association in Greater Chicago

Use empty schools to house immigrants

I am not a supporter of the thousands of immigrants flooding the borders. But, in fact, our administration allowed it to happen. Having multiple buses to cities of refuge, among them Chicago and New York, has turned Texas Governor Greg Abbott into something of a monster. He just gave these cities what they wanted. Or do they want this? Now they say no we can't handle this.

We have nowhere to put them. Where do they think the Texas border towns will put them? Here's an idea for Chicago: Get them out of our precinct and schools and put them in 50 schools that closed 10 years ago; 26 of those schools are still empty.

John LaBrant, Norwood Park

The GOP needs to stop being a puppet of the NRA

This year alone, there have been more than 200 mass shootings in America. And despite the thousands of senseless and disfigured killings of this never-ending massacre, the vast majority of Republican elected officials, at every level of government, continue to refuse to do anything about it.

instead. they are doing everything they can to prevent meaningful legislation on gun control and mental health initiatives from being passed. They did it to protect the very people they had promised to serve, namely the National Rifle Association.

So my question is: When another mass shooting occurs, what is the first thing that comes to mind for the NRA and its Republican puppets?

1. What a great country this is! Someone else just exercised their 2nd Amendment rights!

2. Awesome! More shooting means more gun sales, both for those who are angry with the world and those who want to defend themselves against those who are angry with the world!

3. Should we blame unarmed teachers, door lock manufacturers, abortion, single mothers, baldness, or Hunter Biden this time?

Jeffrey Meyer, Chicago