By Ben Joravsky
“In many ways the state’s not interested in giving people information about the programs available–they’re only interested in cutting people from these programs,” says Sharron Matthews, the coalition’s executive director. “We’re getting more calls than ever–about 30 percent more than last year–and there’s more of an urgency in the voices of the people who are calling. They’re on the edge.”
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The hot line’s operated by two employees–only one full-time–who handle more than 1,500 calls a year. The coalition receives only limited funding from the city and nothing from the state or feds, so Matthews must raise the bulk of the hot line’s $50,000 budget from contributions. She’s hoping that some of the television producers who’ve turned to the hot line for information will help out. “We get calls from all sorts of people. We got a call from the producers of ER–they wanted to be on top of things as to what impact medicaid cuts are having. We get calls from other countries. They tell us that calling the state’s like entering a maze–you go from one official to the other, and you can’t get a direct answer.”
Another controversial provision is Welfare to Work, which requires AFDC parents whose children are 13 or older to regularly look for jobs and take any job they can get. “In principle it looks fine–if the state was set up like a headhunter,” says Matthews. “But they give you $20 each month, and you have to come up with 20 different job leads. You do this for eight weeks. If you’re unsuccessful they’re supposed to find a job for you. But where is the state going to find them a job? They don’t have any connections. Now they’re seeking a federal waiver to terminate all cash aid for families after five years–as if all these mothers and fathers will be working. Be realistic. Those jobs aren’t there. This isn’t reform–this is punishment.
The new law also limited medicaid coverage for nursing-home care. As a consequence the hot line is getting calls from people who don’t fit the stereotype of welfare recipients. “About 75 percent of public assistance in Illinois goes for medicaid,” says Matthews. “We get calls from middle-class white people who want to know what they have to do to qualify for medicaid to help pay for nursing-home costs. The state also cut hospice payments. In other words, they wouldn’t pay for you to have someone die in a humane setting–even though it costs far less than dying in a hospital. That makes no sense–they were spending far more money to force people to die in a hospital. They reversed this in October, but we got dozens and dozens of calls over that.
