Health Care

By Sean Powers/Illinois Public Media -- A ribbon cutting ceremony was held Tuesday in Champaign to mark the opening of a new dental clinic for low-income, uninsured, and Medicaid eligible patients.

Located at the Francis Nelson Health Center, the 1,000 square-foot clinic seeks to treat about 2,500 people within the next year. Nancy Greenwalt is the director of Smile Healthy, a community-based initiative to provide dental care to the undeserved. She said in addition to having a full-time dentist and two part-time hygienists on staff, the clinic also has translators who speak both Spanish and English.

By Joe Ward/For CU-CitizenAccess/ It had been a long and tiresome day for Hadley Ravencroft, who spent the majority of her Tuesday, March 15 in Springfield protesting the round of budget cuts set to hit the human services sector if Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget goes unamended.

She got no sleep the night before and was in physical pain at the capital, where she and some 300 others told politicians that their ability to get to Springfield with relative independence would be jeopardized if the sweeping budget cuts pass the General Assembly as they are supposed to.

By Debra Pressey/ The News-Gazette  — For a second year in a row, Vermilion County has been ranked one of Illinois' unhealthiest places to live in a report that looked at health of all U.S. counties. 

Vermilion County with its higher smoking rate, double the number of single-parent households and much greater chance for premature death than national benchmarks was ranked 98th, in the bottom 10 for health among Illinois' 102 counties.

Champaign County ranked near the upper third for a second year in a row, at 34th healthiest in the state. 

SPRINGFIELD –Illinois officials are working to control the state’s obesity problem by hosting three public hearings statewide.

Illinois has the highest number of overweight or obese children covered under public insurance plans in the nation – or 56 percent of children receiving state-funded health insurance, according to findings by the Obesity Prevention Initiative Act.

CHAMPAIGN – Three years after Frances Nelson Health Center moved and expanded with the help of a community fund drive, this Champaign clinic for those in need is facing some serious financial challenges.

And they're being fueled by more than the recession.

For three years after its move to a larger building in November 2006, Frances Nelson has been operating with some financial help pledged by Carle Clinic, Christie Clinic and both Urbana hospitals. But most of that help, including free rent, came to an end this month, and the rent going forward will be $75,000 a year.