Health Care

Federal grants totaling $12.1 million will allow Aunt Martha's Health and Wellness Center to continue operations of health care clinics, according to U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Matteson, and Aunt Martha's.

Her office also announced that Harvey-based Family Christian Health Center has been awarded $2.2 million in federal funding.

In 2008, South Shore resident Cheryl King found a lump in her right breast.

When she told a health professional at a South Side facility, he dismissed it, saying many African-Americans have lumps in their breasts. In the three months it took to get appointments and tests with other professionals to verify it was cancer, it had grown into a stage 2 tumor.

King, 59, is not alone. Racial disparities in breast cancer diagnosis and survival rates may have more to do with neighborhood than race, according to a new University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign analysis.

WASHINGTON — House Democrats slammed federal health officials Wednesday, calling a report on the racial breakdown of cases and deaths from the coronavirus "pitiful" and saying it hurts efforts to target resources to communities of color.

Cook County's public health system would take a $1.4 billion hit and more than 300,000 residents would lose their insurance if Obamacare is repealed, according to an analysis announced Wednesday.

The estimates reflect the number of patients who are enrolled in Medicaid expansion plans made possible by the 2010 law, officials said.

Olivia Shorter, of Matteson, walked the halls of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., and entered the offices of several members of Congress for one-on-one meetings.

Shorter, 7, was there to urge lawmakers to help children, like her, who have sickle cell disease.

"Hello, my name is Olivia," her pitch began, according to her mother, Danielle Shorter. "Thank you for helping children with sickle cell. Here's my card."