Economics, politics, and patient care: Who is really being hurt?"

Dr. Simon Piller, a primary care physician at the Cook County Bureau of Health Services, Ambulatory and Community Health Network, will consider the implications of the impending closure of a large number of the clinics in the Cook County system. Cook County hospitals and clinics have excelled in providing health care regardless of ability to pay, yet they are now being dismantled. Patients are losing long term care, doctors are laid off, the Trauma Unit is endangered, and many clinics are shut down. Provision for displaced patients' care is largely un-addressed. Yet more draconian Medicaid cuts are planned. As the Iraq war rages on, Chicago's public housing is dismantled and schools are restructured and cut back. We will consider options to answer the question "Where do we go from here?"