Seven candidates for the 7th District seat in the U.S. House took part in a forum focused on the country’s healthcare system, Dec. 9 at Oak Park’s main library on Lake Street.
Dr. Winnia Lin, representing a physicians advocacy group which sponsored the event, opened the forum by outlining the current dire circumstances facing people relying on the American healthcare system, including looming cuts to federal assistance, spiking Medicaid and insurance costs, and the growing number of for-profit, corporate owned hospitals.
“Whoever wins this seat to represent the Illinois 7th in Congress will face immense challenges, but also an incredible opportunity to reverse the course that we’re on,” Lin said.
Dr. Monica Maalouf, the event moderator, noted that limited forum participation from a 15-candidate field was decided upon using “a fundraising threshold and viability criteria.”
“These benchmarks helped us create a focused, manageable forum for meaningful conversation,” Maalouf said. “We regret that we weren’t able to include every candidate.” She said there were candidates invited who chose not to attend but declined to say who.
Participating were ER physician Thomas Fisher, union leader Anthony Driver, Forest Park Mayor Rory Hoskins, former Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin, current 8th District State Representative LaShawn K. Ford, attorney and former policy advisor on the National Economic Council, Reed Showalter, and community organizer Kina Collins.
All agreed the healthcare system is designed more to enrich corporately owned hospitals and private insurers than to serve the needs of average people.
Showalter got arguably the loudest applause of the evening when he said Congress needs to “ban corporate ownership of hospitals.”
Collins noted that money is available for wars and tax breaks for billionaires, but not healthcare, and brought up the gap in men’s and women’s healthcare, saying, “It easier for (men) to get Viagra … than it is for (women) to get IUDs and birth control, and that is outrageous.”
There was unanimous agreement on the question of healthcare for transgender people, though with some quibbling.
“Going back to the notion of shared humanity, care for the transgender community is just healthcare,” said Fisher.
“This is a civil right,” Ford said. “It’s not our business, it’s a right.”
“Gender affirming care is healthcare, full stop,” said Showalter. “We have a healthcare system that doesn’t recognize human dignity.”
“The president is attacking transgender people,” Hoskins said. “We’re not going to sign off on it.”
Boykin expressed support for full healthcare for transgender people but concluded with “we have to support our brothers and sisters who choose that lifestyle…” Collins took issue with that phrasing, saying, “Trans folks don’t choose a lifestyle, that’s who they are.”
Maalouf queried Ford specifically regarding his role on the Loretto Hospital board when its then-CEO Anosh Ahmed was found to have engaged in favoritism and financial corruption over the distribution of then-scarce Covid vaccines that went to political insiders rather than local West Side residents. Ahmed was later federally indicted.
Ford said he demanded the firing of Ahmed and another top official at the time, and when the board refused to fire them, he resigned in protest.
Driver called out the Loretto board, including Ford, saying the problems at Loretto “didn’t happen by osmosis,” that “every person on that board hired (Ahmed),” and that he was on picket lines at the hospital twice.
Ford responded later, saying, “I stood with the unions in everything. … I stood with the workers every time, to protect safety at Loretto Hospital.”
The evening’s concluding remarks were filled with both frustration with current circumstances and hope for future changes.
“We deserve better. I can stop the bleeding at the trauma center, I can prescribe antibiotics, but I can’t shape the policies in the emergency department that shape our lives,” Fisher said. “I’m tired of being in an emergency room where I can’t give people what they need.”
“Our democracy is under attack,” said Ford. “The work that has been done over the years, this administration is trying to roll it back.” Noting his 17 years in the Illinois House, he said, “I have always been on the cutting edge of public policy to improve the (8th State House) district.”
Collins credited current Cong. Danny Davis for sponsoring Medicare for all but also dunned him for taking corporate donations. She said the 2026 election is a “once in a generation opportunity for us to elect a progressive to this seat and to elect somebody who is not just going to vote the right way, but who is going to organize the right way for the people.”
Driver called his candidacy “a worker centered movement” that was based on coalition building. “This is about centering the downtrodden, the marginalized,” Driver said. “This is about giving people something to fight for, and not against.”
Hoskins leaned on his nearly 20 years on the Forest Park village council, the last six as mayor. Calling himself an attorney, father, former social worker, and someone who had a “broad set of relationships,” he said he was “prepared to effectively represent the 7th Congressional district, to build coalitions and to engage the entire district.”
Boykin noted that he’s lived throughout the 7th District, having been raised in Englewood and lived in Austin and then Oak Park. “We have two Americas, one for the wealthy, one for the poor,” he said. Noting his experience as Davis’s one-time chief of staff, he said, “I know how to get things done in Washington.”
Showalter reiterated his criticism of predatory corporations placing profits over people, and said he’d work to make constituent’s lives more affordable. “We need someone in Congress who’s going to take the chance to re-establish government for regular people,” he said, “and not for giant corporations and for people who are trying to get rich off the rest of us.”
