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As demand for healthcare rises with an aging population, a strong workforce and financially viable hospitals are essential to meeting today’s patient needs—and their expectations well into the future. Hospitals confronting financial pressures that strain operating budgets are also challenged by significant workforce shortages among nurses and physicians.

Over half of Illinois’ nurses are over age 55 and over a quarter of those nurses plan to retire within five years. Our state currently needs 15,000 more nurses working in healthcare, a shortage the American Nursing Association in Illinois has called a crisis. With one-third of Illinois physicians within retirement age, a shortage of 6,200 physicians is expected in the state by 2030. Just over 1,000 of those physicians are needed in primary care.

Unprecedented federal funding cuts to the Medicaid program will strip Illinois hospitals of $57 billion over 10 years. Over that same decade, hospitals must put more resources towards training and hiring needed clinicians and keeping up with the rising cost of supplies and drugs. Illinois hospitals caring for low-income and uninsured patients can’t afford to keep losing out on federal 340B drug discounts.

Support your local hospital by restoring the 340B program in Illinois. Pass House Bill 2371 SA 2 this spring. Learn more.