As a self-declared pop addict, I am willing to pay the pop tax. I trust Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle to continue the necessary cost-effective investments in the Cook County Health and Hospitals System that benefit not only long-neglected communities that rarely have access to comprehensive health care, but also the entire county.
There is no question: Preckwinkle took the reins to dramatically improve the county hospital system (the largest budget component under her exclusive control). While other elected officials cut or failed to strongly defend health care, Preckwinkle utilized timely federal matching resources to build up an unprecedented comprehensive health care system across the county, particularly in communities with little historical access to this basic human right. This includes neighborhoods like Englewood, Roseland and Austin that now house local clinics offering preventative and behavioral health services, not to mention jobs, all of which make a dent in multigenerational poverty, patterns of divestment, and ultimately save money.
This is simply not the scandal-ridden system of the past.
This is good stewardship of public money.
This is the Cook County health care system quietly evolving into a national model of how a major county should implement health care safety-net services.
As a Lake County resident working and buying pop in Chicago Monday through Friday, I am willing to pay the pop tax, because I know it’s needed. The specificity of the tax jolts me before I buy my Coke, so I have begun to cut down. When I do buy my pop, the county gets my money for health care investments across the entire county. When I skip it, I live longer and slowly break a bad habit.
Either way, the pop tax is doing its job.
— John Fallon, Waukegan
