STEP FORWARD - Shriver Center

By Andrea Kovach, Staff Attorney

It’s not news that major medical emergencies or the treatment of chronic illnesses often cripple a family’s financial stability. What’s now becoming clear is the flip side of that story-how families suffering from financial debt often experience problems that affect their health and productivity. (more…)

By Melissa Cubria, Health Policy Advocate

“This is their job. They are in office to serve the people, so SERVE THE PEOPLE!” says Maria, a small-business owner from Chicago, about her state legislators. Maria is one of the millions of Illinois constituents frustrated with the fractured health care system. The slowing financial market made money tight around Maria’s household, and she found it increasingly difficult to pay her monthly health insurance premiums despite her very comfortable income. Eventually she had to drop her health insurance altogether because it was simply unaffordable. Count her among the ranks of the 1.4 million uninsured adults in Illinois.

(more…)

By Kate Walz, Senior Attorney

With over nine million renters in this country paying more than half of their income toward housing and the nationwide supply of decent, affordable rental housing only shrinking, the Cook County Preservation Compact might be an idea worth replicating nationally.

(more…)