Last Friday, fifty uninsured individuals and taxpayers, went to Rush University Medical Center’s new tower to denounce the hospital’s poor charity care record compared to the value of its tax breaks. While waiting to meet with Rush CEO Dr. Larry Goldberg, they held a press conference in the lobby of the new tower calling on Rush to do more charity care. The action was organized by the Fair Care Coalition – a coalition of community, labor, faith and policy groups – and was done in conjunction with Stand Up! Chicago’s campaign to have corporations and the one percent pay their fair share of taxes.

“We know our hospitals are an important resource in our communities, but our tax dollars are valuable too and so we want our hospitals to earn their tax breaks,” said Carlos Cardenas, a leader with the Lakeview Action Coalition, one of the members of the Fair Care Coalition. Cardenas himself is uninsured and has struggled to get charity care from a non-profit hospital in Lakeview. The Fair Care Coalition is calling for a fair solution that guarantees people are able to access care regardless of their insurance status, that fairly distributes the responsibility of providing care for the uninsured, and that guarantees tax payers receive a fair return for the public subsidies given to non-profit hospitals.