Naperville News Digest: A.D.O.P.T. Pet Shelter expands animal medical services; DuPage County awards more than $711,000 in grants
The services will be in addition to wellness exams, vaccinations and spay and neuter surgeries already provided by the shelter's clinic, a news release said.
Care for minor conditions, such as skin irritations, ear infections, minor wounds and other nonemergency issues will be available by appointment on Thursdays and Fridays, the release said.
Special pricing is available for veterans and people with disabilities or receiving Social Security or Link benefits.
A.D.O.P.T., a private, nonprofit and no-kill animal shelter and veterinary clinic, is located at 420 and 425 Industrial Drive.
The expanded services furthers the clinic's mission to provide accessible, compassionate care for pets and remove barriers to care for pet owners, especially those facing financial challenges, the release said.
For appointments, call 630-355-2299 or go to www.adoptpetshelter.org.
The DuPage County Board has awarded grants of up to $30,000 each to 32 small nonprofit organizations, including several serving the Naperville area.
The board's Human Services Committee approved $711,336 in funding through its Small Agency Grant Programs, a county news release said. Eligible agencies had to apply for the money and be a nonprofit organization with an annual revenue of less than $300,000, the release said.
Organizations selected provide programs and services in the areas of economic development, education and mentoring, housing and shelter, behavioral health services, substance use disorder treatment and food assistance.
Some of the local organizations receiving grant funds include: Accelerate Climate Solutions, Chinese American Women in Action, Community Access Naperville Inc., Naperville Neighbors United, Orchestra Parents/Patrons' United Support, O.L.I. Gardens Inc. and Ride Assist Naperville.
Funding for the program came from investment earnings from the American Rescue Plan Act. Funds were distributed equally among the County Board's six districts, the release said.
The Rotary Club of Naperville recently installed Mike Calabrese as its new president and honored several of its members.
Among those recognized were Donna Malone, named Rotarian of the Year; Barry McKeown, recipient of the Rita Harvard Lifetime Achievement Award; and Alma Jones, presented with the Art Davis Leadership Award, a news release said.
Outgoing president Jacque Clermont said the organization distributed more than $550,000 in the last year through scholarships, grants and community giving and welcomed a record number of new members. The club also surpassed its fundraising goals, collecting more than $30,000 in Sergeant-at-Arms donations to support student scholarships.
The club's theme for the upcoming year is 'United for Good,' Calabrese said in the release.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
4 hours ago
- The Hill
Obamacare faces a subsidy cliff — don't bail it out without reform
The controversy over the 2010 Affordable Care Act dominated Barack Obama's presidency. The implementation of ObamaCare caused health insurance premiums to soar and nearly collapsed the market entirely. The Biden administration responded by flooding the system with expanded federal subsidies, which are set to expire at the end of 2025. To stop premiums for older workers with pre-existing conditions from suddenly leaping by $10,000, Republicans will need to extend part of this additional funding. But in return, they should insist on reforms to allow healthy Americans to purchase better value insurance with their own money. The Affordable Care Act required health insurers to cover individuals with pre-existing conditions at the same price as enrollees who signed up before they got sick. As a result, premiums more than doubled, millions of healthy enrollees dropped coverage and many insurers abandoned the market. The Affordable Care Act kept the individual health insurance market from falling apart completely by providing subsidies to low-income enrollees. But individuals earning more than $62,600 in 2025 would have faced full premiums without any assistance. Those unsubsidized enrollees felt the full pain of the Affordable Care Act's premium hikes. The legislation allows insurers to charge older enrollees up to three times what they do the youngest, and so unsubsidized premiums for near-retirees can be huge. This year, the benchmark unsubsidized premium for a 61-year-old individual in Washington, D.C., is $15,402 per year. Rather than fix ObamaCare's structure, the newly-elected Democratic Congress in 2021 threw money at the problem with the American Rescue Plan Act. By expanding eligibility for subsidies to higher earners, the act reduced the cost of health insurance for a 61-year-old earning $70,000 from $15,402 to $5,950 — with federal taxpayers covering the difference. That legislation also expanded the generosity of subsidies for lower earners. Those earning $22,000, who would have contributed $756 to the cost of insurance under the original Affordable Care Act, would get it entirely paid for by the federal government. This approach has been hugely expensive. In May 2022, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that subsidies for the Affordable Care Act would cost $67 billion in 2024. Last June, following a renewal of the American Rescue Plan Act's increased subsidies, the Congressional Budget Office's revised cost estimate for 2024 surged to $129 billion. A recent Paragon Institute report found that this leap in cost owed much to a surge in enrollment among those who received coverage free of charge. Paragon estimated that such enrollees accounted for nearly half of new enrollment, and that 5 million people may have misreported their income to claim free coverage, costing taxpayers an additional $20 billion. Insurers eagerly welcomed the influx of new healthy enrollees, who had not deemed it worth purchasing insurance from the individual market until the federal government paid the entire price. Such newcomers proved enormously lucrative, as they used less medical care than existing enrollees but generated the same revenue. Democrats, who received twice as much in campaign contributions as Republicans from Blue Cross Blue Shield in 2024, eagerly boasted about reducing the number of uninsured Americans, with little concern for the cost. The expiry of the American Rescue Plan Act subsidies is now looming again, set to expire at the end of 2025. It will be up to a Republican president and Republican-led Congress to find a way forward. Fiscal conservatives have little appetite to pay for renewing all the expanded ObamaCare subsidies. But nor will they feel comfortable letting the American Rescue Plan Act's enhanced subsidies expire entirely, as this would result in a $10,000-per-year premium hike on thousands of middle-income near-retirees. Congress should focus on targeted support by eliminating the cap on eligibility for the Affordable Care Act's original subsidies, which limit premiums at 9.5 percent of income, to avoid a sudden benefit cliff for those with incomes just above $62,600. But they should also let other expansions of subsidies expire. In return, Republicans should insist that Americans be allowed to obtain discounted premiums if they purchase insurance before they get sick. In 2017, President Trump allowed Americans to do this by purchasing short-term insurance. However, in 2024, the Biden administration limited the duration of these plans to four months. This came following pressure from big insurers, who claimed that allowing the expansion of such plans would prevent them from cross-subsidizing enrollees with pre-existing conditions by overcharging those who signed up while healthy. In reality, the restriction of these affordable plans has served mostly to inflate insurers' profits. Healthy enrollees remain able to purchase short-term plans afresh every few months; it is only those who subsequently become sick who are deprived of coverage. Regulatory protections for the long-term coverage of enrollees in non-ObamaCare plans should be strengthened; not weakened. Furthermore, with the extension of the American Rescue Plan Act's premium cap, federal subsidies taxpayers directly subsidize most enrollees. It is therefore unnecessary to also prohibit healthy enrollees from obtaining insurance plans which offer long-term coverage at good value for their money.
Tom's Guide
a day ago
- Tom's Guide
Over 190 million hit in UnitedHealth data breach — confirmed largest in history
Although last year's cyberattack at UnitedHealth was bad enough at 100 million when it was initially reported, the U.S. Health Department's website now has updated numbers that show the full scope of the data breach was actually worse – 192.7 million people were impacted by the hack. As reported by Cybernews, a spokesperson for UnitedHealth pointed out that the individual numbers by state will vary; the company did estimate in January that the attack has exposed the personal information of an estimated 190 million people. The information stolen and exposed in the data breach is said to include a variety of sensitive personal information including medical information like diagnoses, test results, treatment information, medical record numbers, and health insurance information such as member or group ID numbers, as well as personal information like Social Security numbers and driver's license numbers. Other data that was exposed includes billing information, payment information, claims history and billing codes. Change Healthcare is UnitedHealth Group's tech unit, and is a health payment processing company that works with many leading insurance companies such as Aetna, Anthem, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Cigna. In February 2024, the BlackCat ransomware gang infiltrated the company's system causing havoc in the claims processing and patient care systems across the country. In a May Congressional hearing, it was noted that the hacker group used stolen employee login credentials to breach the company's Citrix remote access service – which did not have multi-factor authentication turned on. Although UnitedHealth paid a $22 million ransom for the hackers to delete the stolen data, the data deletion did not occur and after receiving payment, BlackCat pulled an exit scam and shut down their servers. Since a data breach this large affects such a huge portion of the population, it's worth taking steps to protect yourself. If you've been affected by this, or any other data breach, you should definitely invest in one of the best identity theft protection services. However, in order to get access to the identity theft insurance and the extra support these services provide, you need to sign up before falling victim to a data breach. One of the best antivirus software will also help protect you and your devices from malware and online threats when you're online, and it's also important to stay vigilant against phishing and social engineering attacks, and to monitor your accounts for suspicious activity. The best way to stay safe against phishing is to avoid clicking on any links, QR codes or attachments in emails or messages from unknown order to protect yourself against most common social engineering attacks, it's always best to be wary anytime you're approached through social media or by contacts offering opportunities that seem to good to be true A quality antivirus software will provide different features to keep you safe online including one of the best VPNs with browser-level privacy protection. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips.
Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Los Angeles Times
Judge orders RFK Jr.'s health department to stop sharing Medicaid data with deportation officials
WASHINGTON — A federal judge ordered the nation's health department to stop giving deportation officials access to the personal information — including home addresses — of all 79 million Medicaid enrollees. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services first handed over the personal data on millions of Medicaid enrollees in a handful of states in June. After an Associated Press report identified the new policy, 20 states filed a lawsuit to stop its implementation. In July, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services entered into a new agreement that gave the Department of Homeland Security daily access to view the personal data — including Social Security numbers and home address — of all the nation's 79 million Medicaid enrollees. Neither agreement was announced publicly. The extraordinary disclosure of such personal health data to deportation officials in the Trump administration's far-reaching immigration crackdown immediately prompted the lawsuit over privacy concerns. The Medicaid data sharing is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to provide DHS with more data on migrants. In May, for example, a federal judge refused to block the Internal Revenue Service from sharing immigrants' tax data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to help agents locate and detain people living without legal status in the U.S. The order, issued by federal Judge Vince Chhabria in California, temporarily halts the health department from sharing personal data of enrollees in those 20 states, which include California, Arizona, Washington and New York. 'Using CMS data for immigration enforcement threatens to significantly disrupt the operation of Medicaid—a program that Congress has deemed critical for the provision of health coverage to the nation's most vulnerable residents,' Chhabria wrote in his decision, issued on Tuesday. Chhabria, an appointee of President Barack Obama, said that the order will remain in effect until the health department outlines 'reasoned decisionmaking' for its new policy of sharing data with deportation officials. A spokesperson for the federal health department declined to directly answer whether the agency would stop sharing its data with DHS. HHS has maintained that its agreement with DHS is legal. Immigrants who are not living in the U.S. legally, as well as some lawfully present immigrants, are not allowed to enroll in the Medicaid program that provides nearly free coverage for health services. But federal law requires all states to offer emergency Medicaid, a temporary coverage that pays only for lifesaving services in emergency rooms to anyone, including non-U.S. citizens. Medicaid is a jointly funded program between states and the federal government. Immigration advocates have said the disclosure of personal data could cause alarm among people seeking emergency medical help for themselves or their children. Other efforts to crack down on illegal immigration have made schools, churches, courthouses and other everyday places feel perilous to immigrants and even U.S. citizens who fear getting caught up in a raid. 'Protecting people's private health information is vitally important,' Washington state's Attorney General Nick Brown said in a statement. 'And everyone should be able to seek medical care without fear of what the federal government may do with that information.' Seitz and Kindy write for the Associated Press.
