State Representative Lillian Jimenez, nurses and local organizations told the Cook County Board that suspending labor-and-delivery at Roseland Community Hospital will deepen racial and economic inequities; Jimenez said she filed HB 3453 to require 120 days' notice and a prompt public meeting before closures.

Dr. Kieran Joshi told the Cook County Health and Hospitals Committee the county is early into respiratory-virus season, noting rising flu activity and two recent COVID-19 ICU admissions, and urged residents and commissioners to get updated vaccines.

Public-health advocates and providers, including primary-care groups and respiratory-health advocates, endorsed the FY27 county health budget, highlighting CountyCare, school vaping-prevention outreach, PrEP and hepatitis C medication access, and community health fairs.

On March 18, Cook County Health was joined by local leaders to cut the ribbon on the Cook County Health’s Clinical Triage and Stabilization Center,

Cook County Health told the Health and Hospitals Committee it cut agency staffing from about 1,366 FTEs (18.6%) in Sept. 2024 to 698 FTEs (9%) in March 2026, converting hundreds of roles to permanent hires and projecting roughly $118 million in FY26 agency spending as the trend continues.

Cook County Health convened a 60-plus member Medicaid Impact Work Group, unveiled a multilingual toolkit and microsite (getmedicaidfacts.com) to help beneficiaries prepare for HR 1-driven changes (including twice-yearly redeterminations and work requirements), and outlined steps to reduce administrative coverage loss.

Presenters told the Health and Hospitals Committee that a Cook County Health–City Colleges–UChicago Medicine coalition won a $5 million Pritzker Traubert Foundation grant (Health Catalyst Chicago) to train medical assistants, technicians and other entry-level health workers; the first formal cohort will begin in January 2027.