As the third Open Enrollment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) begins, the Healthy Communities Cook County (HC3) Coalition met with Cook County Commissioners Jesús “Chuy” García, Bridget Gainer, Richard Boykin, Luis Arroyo Jr., and John Fritchey to stand with uninsurable Cook County residents who lack health access and to encourage eligible uninsured Cook County residents to enroll in the ACA. Today, HC3’s “Healthy Families, Healthy Communities” event brought together grassroots organizations, policy groups and labor unions from across Cook County to celebrate newly insured families and to explore the possibilities of local policy solutions for the uninsurable in Cook County.

“Regardless of language or immigration status, we all get sick, we all have medical emergencies at some point in our lives and we all need access to quality healthcare,” said Commissioner Garcia. “As the third open enrollment begins, we encourage the over 250,000 individuals eligible for ACA to sign up and take advantage of this opportunity. ACA has expanded access to healthcare for many, but unfortunately some Cook County residents are still left out. We must find a local solution to address this coverage gap and ensure that Cook County residents don’t have to rely on emergency services.”

Approximately 253,341 individuals in Cook County remain uninsured and eligible for coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA); in addition, another 180,000 are uninsurable. The purpose of the ACA is to ensure populations who historically have limited access to affordable healthcare are able to access the services they rely on before and after they become sick or injured. “I am a mother, a grandmother and I have worked at McDonalds for 17 year,” said Lucina Gutierrez, an active leader with the Fight for 15. “The Affordable Care Act is a good step forward for many families, but in Cook County thousands of immigrant and low wage families do not have access to this program.” Many of the eligible and uninsured are immigrants who have indicated that high cost, lack of information, limited language access, and immigration status have prevented them from engaging with the healthcare system. In Chicago and Cook County, the areas with the highest numbers of non-English speakers are the same areas with the lowest number of unenrolled ACA eligible individuals.