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Chicago Tribune
01-05-2025
- Health
- Chicago Tribune
Letters: What slashing Medicaid would do to health care in Cook County
Medicaid is a crucial public health program in the United States, providing essential health care services to millions of low-income families, children, pregnant women, elderly adults and individuals with disabilities. As Cook County commissioner, I know the importance of prioritizing health care access, recognizing its pivotal role in public health. Cook County Health, a trailblazer in health care regardless of financial ability, has served our community for over 180 years, and a substantial portion of our patient population relies on Medicaid. I convened public hearings on maternal health and secured funding for the inaugural Cook County Health doula program, aiming to reframe the narrative on maternal health in Cook County and address disparities for our pregnant mothers. However, the GOP's looming Medicaid cuts pose a significant threat to health care. These cuts could reduce access to medical services, strain health care providers, and burden state and county budgets. They would disproportionately affect low-income families, the elderly and individuals with disabilities, who heavily rely on Medicaid. Reduced funding could diminish Medicaid eligibility and access to essential medical services. Furthermore, these cuts would eliminate or reduce preventive care programs, leading to long-term health complications due to delayed detection and treatment. Hospitals and clinics serving a substantial portion of Medicaid patients may face financial challenges, resulting in staff reductions, decreased services and even facility closures. I understand the concerns of Illinois patients regarding losing coverage, especially if hospitals in low-income areas are forced to close or reduce services. Health care advocates argue that such cuts could ultimately cost everyone more in the long run. Limited resources may compromise care quality, leading to longer wait times and reduced patient satisfaction. Medicaid cuts exacerbate health outcomes, causing individuals to forgo necessary medical treatments due to cost or lack of coverage. In the long term, the absence of preventive and basic care can lead to more severe health issues and increased health care costs. Cook County Health could potentially lose $200 million annually in reimbursements if our patient population were to lose Medicaid coverage. Medicaid cuts would have far-reaching implications for individuals, health care providers, state and county budgets, and overall public health. Policymakers must carefully consider these consequences when making decisions about Medicaid funding. This is precisely the reason why I firmly oppose cuts to Medicaid. — Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller, 6th District Threat to transit is real Regarding the editorial 'Chicago's transit agencies want you to panic. They don't explain the whole truth' (April 27): Warning riders and lawmakers about an impending fiscal cliff isn't 'panic-stoking' — it's responsible leadership. Without immediate action this spring, Chicagoland faces devastating transit cuts that would gut service, strand riders and devastate our economy. Unfortunately, the editorial minimizes the urgent reality facing our region. Public transit in the Chicago region is at a crossroads. We are here because Illinois has undervalued and underfunded transit for decades — despite the essential role the CTA, Metra and Pace play in providing an average of 1.2 million rides a day that connect people to jobs, education and health care. Illinois contributes just 17% to transit operations, far behind peer states like New York (28%), Boston (44%) and Philadelphia (50%). When the Regional Transportation Authority and other agencies warn of a crisis, it's because the threat is real. A 40% cut to transit service would be catastrophic. It would mean longer wait times, the loss of 24-hour service in Chicago, the elimination of weekend options for suburban riders, higher fares for working families and devastating impacts for our most vulnerable riders. This cut in service would mean $2.6 billion lost from our region's annual gross domestic product, on top of the loss of tens of thousands of jobs — all in just the first year. Advocates, independent experts and residents across the region — who have already sent thousands of letters at — are united behind the call for a $1.5 billion investment to not just stabilize transit but also to strengthen it. An empowered RTA that would deliver more frequent, reliable service and reforms. Independent analysis estimates that this investment will add $2.7 billion to our region's GDP annually and 28,000 jobs in the first year. We are advocating for a future in which the RTA would be accountable for fares, service quality and capital investment — giving riders a better system and taxpayers better results. Shorter waits, more frequent service and a more seamless experience — all backed by a stronger RTA, one empowered to intervene when needed to fix issues riders are facing whether that be ghost buses or implementing a Transit Ambassador pilot to help improve safety. Illinois lawmakers have a clear choice: Listen to the research, to the advocates and, most importantly, to the thousands speaking out to save transit for our region and for our future. — Kirk Dillard, chairman, Regional Transportation Authority Culture, history at risk Culture, heritage, identity and history — these are not luxuries. They are the foundation of our democracy. Illinois has long led the way in preserving and celebrating them, from our iconic Chicago museums to rural libraries and local historical societies across the state. Today, those very institutions are under attack. The federal government has moved to gut funding that supports Illinois Humanities and similar organizations nationwide. These are not bloated bureaucracies — they are community lifelines, hosting after-school programs for underserved kids, amplifying veterans' stories, and bringing artists and scholars into classrooms to spark critical thinking. As chair of the Museums, Culture, Arts, and Entertainment Committee in the Illinois House, I find this moment alarming — not just as a policymaker but also as an Illinoisan who understands the power of public memory. This is not simply about budgets. It is about ideology. One of President Donald Trump's recent executive orders — cynically titled 'Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History' — threatens to erase narratives deemed 'divisive' or unpatriotic. In practice, it means silencing Black, Indigenous, immigrant, LGBTQ+ and other historically marginalized voices. It means replacing honest reckoning with historical whitewashing. It means undermining education to manipulate patriotism for political gain. We have seen this playbook before. Authoritarian regimes have always sought to control culture — because when you silence a museum, you mute a people. When you erase a curriculum, you narrow a generation's understanding of justice. Illinois will not be complicit in that erasure. Our libraries, historic sites and museums are not relics of the past; they are living classrooms. They teach empathy, civic responsibility and critical thought. They drive our economy, create jobs and make Illinois a destination for millions. And they are in danger. We must act. I urge every Illinoisan to contact their federal representatives and demand the restoration of funding to the National Endowment for the Humanities and related programs. Tell them we will not allow our stories — or our democracy — to be rewritten by fear and ideology. This is not a red-state or blue-state issue. It is a question of whether we have the courage to confront the full truth of our shared journey — and to defend the spaces that protect and preserve it. The stakes could not be higher. History does not erase itself. It is erased when good people stay silent. Now is the time to raise our voices — before those who fear the truth silence them for good. — State Rep. Kimberly Neely du Buclet, D-Chicago Yes to upzoning plan Op-ed writer John Holden's attack on the plan to upzone Broadway contains the misleading claim that opposing upzoning is somehow 'environmentally friendly' ('Zoning plan for Broadway a nonstarter,' April 25). This is as far from true as Chicago is from Australia. As an environmental attorney, I know all too well the challenge we face in cutting our greenhouse gas emissions in order to avoid the worst effects of climate change. In Illinois, transportation accounts for more carbon dioxide emissions than any other sector. One of the best ways to cut per-capita emissions is to allow more people to move to transit-rich neighborhoods such as Edgewater and Uptown, where car-free and car-lite lifestyles are possible. Unfortunately, zoning rules that prohibit dense new housing across much of Chicago limit the city's growth, pushing potential Chicagoans to car-oriented Sunbelt cities such as Houston. If Chicago is going to be the environmental leader so many of us want it to be, it needs to loosen restrictions on climate-friendly housing. The Broadway upzoning plan is a good start.
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Lawsuit claims a former UI OB-GYN used his own sperm to impregnate a woman in the 1950s
A former University of Iowa fertility doctor is accused of using his own sperm to allegedly twice impregnate a patient more than 65 years ago though the court argues that an actual timeline is hazy because the family hasn't provided proof of the insemination agreement. The Iowa Supreme Court will decide whether the malpractice lawsuit filed more than 60 years after the late John H. Randall died in 1959, can proceed. The lawsuit accuses Randall of using his own sperm to impregnate Donna Miller two different times during fertility treatments in the 1950s. Miller, who died in 2018, later gave birth to three children between 1954 and 1958: Bert Jay, Nancy, and Randy. Iowa implemented the Fraud in Assisted Reproduction Act in 2022, allowing lawsuits for reproductive-related violations, like unknowingly being impregnated by someone else's sperm. The family argues that this law allows them to sue retroactively. The state disagreed, arguing that the Fraud in Assisted Reproduction Act was established 70 years after Miller's alleged fertility treatments and cannot be applied retroactively. The Daily Iowan first reported that Nancy and Bert Jay Miller, who say their biological father is John H. Randall, took their malpractice lawsuit to the Iowa Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments on Feb. 11. The Iowa Supreme Court stated that it is unclear whether Donna Miller knew the origins of the artificial insemination nor did her children determine what she "consented to" with Dr. Randall. The court also ruled that it is unclear what specific fertility issue the Millers had, what type of treatment Donna Miller received, or when specifically the family sought fertility treatment. Randall was the head of the University of Iowa's Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology for seven years, from April 1952 until his death from a stroke in 1959, at what was then known as the University Hospitals State University of Iowa. Randall received his M.D. from the University of Iowa in 1928, according to his front-page obituary in the April 20, 1959 Iowa City Press-Citizen. He appears in the Press-Citizen across several decades, speaking about the OB-GYN field and cancer in women. Bert and Donna Miller allegedly had trouble conceiving a child and visited Randall for fertility assistance in the 1950s, though the exact years and dates have not been made public. The fertility treatments likely utilized artificial insemination, a process where a semen sample is "washed" to separate sperm from seminal fluid and inserted into a woman's body, according to the Cleveland Clinic. It differs from in-vitro fertilization, where the sperm and egg are combined outside of the body. The Millers produced three babies during the 50s: one in 1954 (Nancy Miller), another in 1956 (Bert Jay Miller), and a third in 1958. The third child, named Randy Miller in the lawsuit, was found to be the biological son of the senior Bert Miller. More: Need someone to watch the kids? An Iowa City nonprofit plans to offer childcare on holidays In 2016, one of the Miller's sons, Bert Jay, who lives in Firestone, Colorado, was "curious about his heritage and extended family," and submitted a DNA test roughly 60 years after he was born to according to a Johnson County District Court ruling. The results determined that Randall was "likely" Bert Jay's father. He informed his siblings of the news, and Nancy Miller, who lives in Coralville, quickly took an test of her own. "Her results matched Bert Jay's," the court wrote. Bert Jay Miller then asked a cousin on his father's side to take a DNA test and the results indicated that there was no biological relation between the two. Donna Miller did tell her kids about Randall's fertility treatment but never indicated that anyone other than the elder Bert was their biological father. Donna died in 2018, eight years after her husband. The two Miller children sprang into action and initially filed a malpractice lawsuit in Johnson County in 2022. It was later dismissed in January 2023 after the court found that the statute of limitations had passed. Nancy and Bert Miller again filed a malpractice lawsuit against the State of Iowa in 2024 claiming that they were "conceived through assisted reproduction in violation of Iowa Code 714I.3 (prohibited practices and acts)." The two Miller children are each seeking $200,000 in statutory damages in addition to unspecified compensatory damages, prompting the recent appeal to the Iowa Supreme Court. They argued that the 2022 Fraud in Assisted Reproduction Act (FARA) applies to Randall's alleged actions in the 1950s. From 2022: First-of-its-kind Iowa law criminalizes fertility fraud, labeling some deceitful doctors as sex offenders In May 2024, District Court Judge Kevin McKeever approved a state motion to dismiss the case, ruling that the act does not apply retroactively and writing that FARA "contains no express language indicating legislative intent for retrospective application." The court ruled that the alleged conduct happened more than 70 years before the act was established. The court noted that the Miller's lawsuit does not specify what their mother, Donna Miller "understood about the identity of the donor whose sperm was used in the procedure," suggesting that they do not know if it was an anonymous donor. The court also said that the lawsuit does not specify what Donna Miller "consented to" in writing. The Miller children decided to appeal the decision with the Iowa Supreme Court. In briefs filed with the court, attorneys for the family argue that the Johnson County district court misinterpreted the second part of a three-prong legal test known as the Hedlund test, which is used by courts to assess whether laws should be applied retroactively. FARA places no statute of limitations on any actions brought under the law. The act also provides leeway for claims brought even if parents are "deceased or otherwise unable to bring such cause of action," the brief said. Nancy and Bert Jay Miller's brief argued their claims are how the legislature intended the law to be applied. A local lawyer suggested that the rise of online DNA testing databases can often inspire cases like the Miller's. More: Nationwide President's Day protest against Trump, DOGE draws Iowans to State Capitol "This case, and its companion cases, demonstrates that this type of tortious conduct usually comes to light through direct-to-consumer genetic testing many years (and sometimes many decades) after the acts at issue," Iowa City-based attorney Michael Biderman wrote. "A consequence of finding that the statute only has prospective application is that it renders it potentially toothless for generations of victims of this type of conduct." The brief asks the court to return the case to the lower court for further discovery and pre-trial proceedings. An attorney for the family did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a reply, the state's argument echoes Judge McKeever's in a title to one of the subsections: "The Act (FARA) does not apply retrospectively because it does not expressly say so." The state argues that the legislature did not intend for the law to be applied retrospectively because "it contains no express language indicating legislative intent for retrospective application." The state points to a similar Illinois law, which outright says: "(T)his Act shall be retroactive and apply to any treatment by a health care provider occurring prior to the effective date of this Act." Iowa's 2022 FARA law makes no such distinction. More: Find out why this Iowa City principal was a finalist for 2025 Iowa Principal of the Year The absence of a statute of limitations is not an indication of retrospective action, the state argued, because it would apply to both the civil and criminal aspects of the law. Retrospective criminal charges through the FARA would violate the "ex post facto clause of the Iowa Constitution," the state said, "creating criminal punishments for actions that were not criminalized before the law was passed." The state asked that the district court's dismissal be upheld. A ruling is expected by the end of June when the Iowa Supreme Court's term comes to a close. Ryan Hansen covers local government and crime for the Press-Citizen. He can be reached at rhansen@ or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @ryanhansen01. This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Ex-UI doctor allegedly used own sperm for patient fertility treatment
