* Capitol News Illinois has been doing a good job of covering some recent legislative hearings that nobody else has been paying much attention to. For instance…

Health care experts appeared before Illinois lawmakers Monday to discuss disparities in access to hospitals and outcomes based on ZIP code.

Witnesses discussed solutions to financial obstacles facing safety-net hospitals, the lack of preventative care for underserved communities, and massive disparities in outcomes based on race and income at a joint hearing of the state Senate Public Health and Human Services committees.

Safety net hospital is a term for a medical center that generally provides health care for individuals regardless of their insurance status, legal status or ability to pay. The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services determines whether or not a hospital qualifies for a safety net designation based on the percentage of inpatients using Medicaid.

Because the safety net model is not an inherently profitable one, safety net hospitals rely on government funding and are consistently financially challenged, leading to cuts in services such as pediatrics or obstetrics and gynecology, or, in some circumstances, closure of the facility.

In many parts of the state, safety net hospitals are the only locally accessible supplier of health care, particularly in low income, majority Black and majority Latino communities based in the south and west sides of Chicago and the Metro East area near St. Louis.

In 2014, there were 40 safety net hospitals in the state. According to IDHFS, 24 hospitals currently meet that designation.

* And…

In Illinois and around the country, an increasing number of universities, investigators and researchers are turning up evidence of systemic racism in the financial sector that has plagued Black Americans for decades

In June, a report from Chicago radio station WBEZ-FM and the nonprofit news organization City Bureau found that for every dollar banks loaned in a white Chicago neighborhood, they only invested 12 cents in Black neighborhoods. A 2019 Duke University study estimates Black Chicagoans lost between $3 to $4 billion in the 1950s and 60s due to predatory housing contracts. A 2013 Pew report shows that nationally, African Americans lost 53 percent of their wealth between 2005 and 2009 due to the collapse of the housing market.

On Thursday, the Illinois Senate Executive and Commerce and Economic Development committees held a joint hearing on racial equity in lending and homeownership. The hearing was the latest in an ongoing series of hearings prompted by the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus agenda to end systemic racism.

“The time is long overdue for Black households to be met with policies that uplift them and provide them with access to better credit and lending opportunities,” state Sen. Mattie Hunter, a Chicago Democrat who chairs the Executive Committee, said. “It’s imperative that we work to close the wealth gap and level the playing field.”

* And…

Lawmakers and renewable energy stakeholders are calling for legislative action on measures meant to bring funding to and diversify the clean energy industry in the state.

Members of a coalition backing the Path to 100 energy legislation made the calls in a virtual news conference Wednesday. Their legislation aims to raise a rate cap on energy bills from about 2 to 4 percent to provide funding for renewable projects, avoiding what Rep. Will Davis called the “solar cliff.”

“This is a time when Illinois desperately needs jobs, but the renewable industry in Illinois has lost an estimated 3,500 jobs in the last year,” Davis, a Hazel Crest Democrat, said in the news conference. “This is mainly because our state’s renewable energy program is running out of funding. Today, we are calling on the General Assembly to pass the Path to 100 Act to solve this crisis, and we are announcing a new diversity and equity plan that will be a key part of our renewable energy sector going forward.”

The diversity initiatives laid out Wednesday include funding workforce development programs for the industry through the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and creating diversity hiring and contracting mandates for companies procuring Renewable Energy Credits through the Illinois Power Agency, among other actions. The coalition said it also aims to expand access to community solar initiatives and the Solar for All Program for low-income Illinoisans.