Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said Saturday that any assistance to the financially strapped West Suburban Hospital would have to come from the state of Illinois. 

Preckwinkle, who spoke Saturday morning to a packed house of the regular meeting of the Democratic Party of Oak Park, was asked if the county was monitoring the increasingly dire financial situation at West Suburban Hospital. 

“We have a real challenge,” Preckwinkle replied. “Half of our budget is health care. We have two hospitals, Stroger Hospital, our flagship hospital, and Provident on the south side. We’ve got all we can do trying to keep those hospitals together and performing.”  

Preckwinkle noted that West Sub is just one of numerous safety net hospitals in the county that are struggling financially. 

“Whenever a safety net hospital in the county gets in trouble, it will go to Cook County and say ‘why can’t you take it over?’” she said. “All of those hospitals are in trouble, and taking them over [would] add to our challenges.” 

“My responsibility is to assure that the system we have in place is as strong as possible and as viable as possible, and taking on other struggling safety net [hospitals] challenges the viability of our system.”  

“I would say frankly that this is a state responsibility,” she said. “Cook County as a public health system cannot be responsible for adding to our portfolio every struggling safety net hospital.”  

Preckwinkle made it clear in her 15 minute presentation that the county’s healthcare system is facing serious challenges of its own in the face of the Trump administration’s efforts to drastically reduce federal support for hospitals and healthcare.  

She noted that half of the county budget goes to healthcare, saying, “It’s a $10 billion budget, and $5 billion is healthcare.” The current federal government, she said, “is doing everything they can – the President and Congress – to restrict the amount of federal support we have for healthcare.”  

Preckwinkle expressed pride in the county’s longstanding commitment to providing access to healthcare, and vowed to continue a high level of service and access to anyone who needs it.  

“We in Cook County – and we should all be proud of this –for 180 years we’ve taken whoever comes to our door in our health and hospital system. [Whether] you have insurance or you’re undocumented, you can come to our healthcare system. Anybody can walk through the door and get good care.”  

“Since 2013, not only have we been providing care directly, we’ve also run an insurance program, a Medicaid insurance program, called County Care,” she said.   

People eligible for Medicaid can be part of County Care and get insured for their healthcare.  

“That has resulted in a dramatic increase in our spending on healthcare, and more people who are assisted,” she said, adding, “And that money comes from the federal government as part of the Affordable Care Act. President Obama’s legacy enabled public systems to create these Medicaid Managed Care programs.”  

Preckwinkle said the county board has done a good job of overseeing the county healthcare system, saying: “Ours is the highest rated in the state. As a public institution we’re rated higher than Blue Cross Blue Shield and any other private providers out there, in terms of the quality of care we deliver and the effectiveness and efficiency of that care.”