By the time when the pain in the abdominal area in Julio became so bad that he was quick to the emergency room in Chicago, doctors diagnosed him with stomach cancer in the third stage.
He recalls that his wife cries when they got the news in late 2022. Julio, who asked not to publish his full name, began with diagnostic mathematics.
“Maybe she thought it was a final disease for me, and that she might lose me,” said Giulio in Spanish. “But I was thinking about doctors, payments, and how we will pay for rent and food.”
Julio, 48, lived in Chicago about 30 years ago without legal status. He did not provide him with his job in dry health cleaners or sick days. But he and his wife have applied for the health benefits of the state for migrant adults, which have provided health insurance for migrants like him between the ages of 42 to 64 years.
The coverage of the HBIA program allowed Julio to undergo surgery and receive chemotherapy in the past two years.
It is among nearly 33,000 people without legal status across Illinois – including approximately 22,000 in Cook County – who may lose health care coverage this summer under the leadership of the JB Pritzker Program Governor has suggested reducing the state budget.
Julio, 48, from Chicago, outside the Portage-Cragin Chicago Public Library in Portage Park.
Tyler Paskak Laravier/Sun Times
Once the Democrats hold at the state level as a beacon of the gradual governance that protects some of the most vulnerable Illinois population, the health benefits of adults immigrant to the cutting block by the ruler due to the costs of large in the face of the budget deficit in general.
Now, defenders pay the financing for a program that was a lifeline for thousands of low -income people without other options.
“These are the people who do hard work, work abroad, who work in cleaning or in the construction industries, who were told are essential workers during Covid. These are the people we say,” you cannot get health care now. “
“This is because their employers do not pay them enough and/or do not provide the advantages of health care through their jobs. These are the people who truly sacrificed their bodies in our economy, and it is very frustrated to know that on their back we are trying to budget budget.”
Increasing costs
The legislators presented a much smaller version of the elderly program without legal status in 2020, early in the Covid-19s, providing similar coverage of the Modic but without any federal assistance.
This coverage was finally expanded to a larger group of 42 and above, although the increasing and popular costs prompted the state to suspend the new registration in 2023.
The migrants currently covered in the program should be not documented or have a temporary protected position, and they live in the state and have a family income at or less than $ 18,754 for one person, according to the Ministry of Health Care and Family in Illinois.
Raymundo Ruiz, from Melrose Park, which was diagnosed with Parkinson's, carries a bottle of pill to manage Parkinson's disease. It was filmed at the Paso-West Suburban Action Project in Melrose Park.
Tyler Paskak Laravier/Sun Times
Stephanie Altman, Director of Health Justice at the Sharifier Center in the Poverty Law, said that the HBIA program was initially open to migrants who were holders of green cards for less than five years, but these people were later transferred in the program in favor of other options such as medical care and price law plans.
The program decreased under the increasing scrutiny last month when Illinois auditor, General Frank Moteno, issued a report that the country has reduced the estimation of the costs of the program, which amounted to $ 1.6 billion during the past five years.
The review also found that the state reduced the demand for immigrants programs for health care and found errors in registration. For example, an estimated 6,098 people in the program were registered as “not documented” but they have social security numbers.
Pritzker's office estimates that cutting the program for adults between the ages of 42 and 64 will save 330 million dollars, as the country aims to bridge a budget -budget deficiency.
“These are people of working age … and they have the ability, in many cases – and we saw it – to obtain a job that has health care associated with it,” said Pritzker after submitting the address of his budget in Springfield.
The Pritzker's proposal – which the legislators will negotiate to pass a budget by the end of May – maintain the state's 65 -year -old people, at an estimated cost of $ 132 million.
“There are many priorities that I want to do immediately if we have the resources needed to do this,” said Pritzker. “We cannot do this this year, and for this reason we had to make some changes.”
The Republicans in Illinois, who opposed any spending from the beginning, say that this should be enough to cut the program immediately.
“There is no need to wait until the coming fiscal year-close it immediately and protect the taxpayers in Illinois,” Illinois, Tony McCombe, Illinois, said in a statement.
Impact on health centers
The Villa of the Ruler praised to defend “the different population in our states of the attacks that we see from our federal government” – but in addition to leaving the open thousands, cutting the program “will” tear the carpet from under the network of our health care providers in the state. “
She said that she was working with a wide alliance of groups aimed at re -covering migrants for adults to the budget. This includes the Illinois Association for Primary Health Care, a non -profit commercial association for qualified health centers, which runs 400 clinics at the state level.
Lesser people with coverage means more people who are waiting for a longer period of time to search for care, and – like Julio – become more likely to resort to the emergency room when they do, according to Sierus Winet, chief public affairs official in the association. This, in turn, means high costs and delicate resources that extend the thinner.
Winit said: “We will still be here, and we are still doing our best to provide care for this group of residents and anyone who needs it in one of our clinics.” “But everyone should be clear about the effects of this decision on our ability to serve us and our ability to meet the needs of our societies.”
Or worse than that, thousands of people who have difficult decisions, said Enddy Almonord, the campaign manager in the Illinois Health Campaign.
“For many people, they will have to choose between paying the price of their medications or paying the price of a doctor's office visiting, paying the rent and paying the price of food.” “They will not be able to seek health care until they are at a stage where they have to go to the emergency room.”
“It will be fatal”
Raymondo Ruiz, 53, from Millerose Park, worries that his medical condition may get worse if he lost his health insurance through Hbia. He was diagnosed with Parkson's disease about four years ago after the doctor noticed that his hands would not stop shaking.
Raymundo Ruiz, from Melrose Park, with Parkinson's disease stands at the office of the Paso-West Suburban Action Project in Melrose Park.
Tyler Paskak Laravier/Sun Times
“It will be dead for me because with only one hour, I miss my medications, my hand begins to shake and be very tense,” said Ruiz in Spanish. “I can't do anything. This will affect me a lot.”
It takes a daily mix of pills related to the diagnosis of Parkinson's, high blood pressure and depression, which is covered by HBIA. Even with this medicine, it sometimes faces a problem in doing tasks such as wearing his clothes or getting out of the bed alone.
“Doctors told me that the medicine they give me is the best of Parkinson's slowing down, but there may be a moment when he advances,” Ruiz said in Spanish. “I hope it doesn't happen, but it can happen.”
Before diagnosed, he was working for many years in a bakery and then in strange jobs such as drawing and household repairs. But it has more difficult to secure work due to concerns about his health. Ruiz lived in the Chicago region for more than 30 years, but he was unable to legalize his migration.
Altman said that immigrants like Ruiz, the search for long health care outside the emergency room could be very limited. Without a legal status, people are not eligible to obtain coverage through the health care market and they will have to rely on visiting the emergency room or a federal qualified health center.
“Even Hbia, the options of this type of continuous care are limited to nothing,” said altman.
Raymundo Ruiz, from Melrose Park, which has been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, shows some medications to be taken to manage his condition.
Tyler Paskak Laravier/Sun Times
Julio, from Chicago, had no health insurance before, and he could not remember that he is so sick that he needs to search for a doctor. The colds are usually treated with herbal remedies, and he considered himself a good healthy person – running around the garden with young children and cycling.
Then in 2022, he began to lose weight unexpectedly and his appetite decreased. He decreased to 90 lbs by the time he underwent surgery after diagnosing his abdominal cancer.
Julio had to stop working because his job would not give him a leave to recover from chemotherapy, which he is still undergoing – although he was less frequent. He is waiting for the results that he hopes to show that cancer no longer exists.
“I am a person who believes, so I think he is in the hands of God,” Gulio said in Spanish.
His young sons, between the ages of 8 and 12, do not know the intensity of his health problems. It often slipped with them that his stomach looks like a McDonald's apple after they had a look at his scars. He does not know what to do if the program ends this summer.
“If the cancer appears after years, I will not be able to pay the price of the drug or any other service, I will need to take the exams,” said Julio in Spanish. “It will be a station. In fact, my children, if they are older and married, will be a different story because they will grow and can work, but they are still young and they need their father.”
