ABOUT THE AUTHORS Bill Cahill has a B.A. is Economics and Political Science and has worked as a janitor in Iowa City, Iowa.... Barry Checkoway teaches citizen participation and community planning at the University of Illinois.... Dana DeYoung is an Oregonian aiming to become a landscape architect.... Michael Doyle is a Chicago-born consumer organizer now working in a neighborhood health center.... Peter Nicholson dreams of entering politics in Chicago but will settle for a job in the urban planning field.... John Page dreams of a life of leisure but also will settle for a job in urban planning.... Patricia Petrie is a well-traveled gourmet cook who once was a pre-med major.... Jeannette Stets is an aspiring landscape architect from Ohio who, with Dana DeYoung, produced the graphics in this guidebook.... Mindy Turbov plans a career in the housing and community development field. All participated in a workshop in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Fall, 1977. ASA ABOUT THE A.H.C.C. The Association of Health Care Consumers was formed in Illinois in 1976 to promote consumer involvement in health care planning. It is a non-profit, tax-exempt association staffed by paid and volunteer professionals and led by a board of directors, an advisory board, and several issue-oriented committees. Although all members of the board are consumers under the definition of PL 93-641, providers are welcome as members of the association. Membership is open to all. The A.H.C.C. aims to provide information and back-up services to health care consumers and to facilitate exchange and cooperative action among citizens organizing around health care issues. Among the initial activities is to establish a statewide network of health care consumer organizations in Illinois. This guidebook was sponsored by the A.H.C.C. as part of its effort to increase public awareness of important health care issues. It was produced by a student group as the University of Illinois to whom we are greatly appreciative. We hope it will stimulate citizens to work in this vital area of public concern. We are eager to be of service. Frank Giarrizzo, President Association of Health Care Consumers 109 North Dearborn Chicago, Illinois 60602 312-641-5766 I enclose supplemental comments by the Consumer Coalition for Health on the Proposed Amendments to PL 93-641 submitted by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. I would appreciate your including these in the record as a supplement to my written statement submitted to the Committee. Thank you. Consumer Coalition for Health "Consumers United for Better Health Care through 1511 K Street, N.W., Suite 220 February 23, 1978 COMMENTS ON PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO P.L. 93-641 BY THE Section 203 is a highly undesirable proposal because it would impede, if not substantially remove, the independence of the governing body for health planning in public HSAs. Subsection (c) would gut the entire notion of a separate governing body for health planning by requiring approval of the health systems plan and the annual implementation plan by the public body or unit of local government. Since these plans are to be the basis for all other planning decisions, the proposed amendment would move the effective control of health planning away from what was intended by the statute, from a broadly representative consumer-provider group to an agency of local government. It would mean that rather than an independent governing body for health planning, we would have what is essentially an advisory board with the true decision-making power resting in the unit of local government. Effective control would be in a body which does not meet the broadly representative requirement of the act. The process of undermining the independent health planning body would be further increased by granting powers to remove members of that body to the unit of local government and by making the budget of the agencies subject to approval by the local governmental unit. Although local |