Health, yes; duplication of services, no

As with many or most governmental entities that rely on the state of Illinois to help pay for services, Kane County is looking to cut costs.

The Kane County Health Department, in particular, is in troubling shape - its financial cushion is evaporating as more money goes out than comes in for programs the state has normally funded.

That trend has forced the county, like others, to take a hard look at its offerings over the past several years. It has developed a plan to move away from offering non-mandated services that are provided elsewhere, narrowing its focus to such core duties as providing restaurant inspections and dealing with food-borne illnesses and infectious disease outbreaks.

To that end, the county has announced it plans to cut 62 positions in its health department - people who administer the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program that provides supplemental food for new mothers and children as old as 5, and family case management, which provides women and children doctor referrals and access to Medicaid.

There are about 6,000 clients who use case management, and 1,700 of them also use WIC.

There's been much hand wringing over the notion that the county would throw needy families out on the street with nowhere else to get these services.

But that's just not so, health department Director Paul Kuehnert said.

Many of those people already receive services at the facilities of the Visiting Nurses Association, the Greater Elgin Family Care Center and Aunt Martha's Youth Service Center - three federally funded programs located in Elgin, Carpentersville and Aurora. The only difference in service is that, for now, it's Kane County that pays their bills.

Kuehnert said he is "pretty close to 100 percent" certain that all of the 6,000 clients will be able to transition from the county-funded programs to the federally funded programs. Greater Elgin's CEO on Tuesday affirmed that position.

We see the hand-wringing more as a veiled attempt to save 62 jobs. And while we're sympathetic to people losing their jobs, the county already has discussed with the three service providers the notion of considering them for employment as their caseloads grow. Hiring qualified people from among them makes sense; they're already familiar with the clients and facilities.

In this economy, it's more important than ever that duplication of services be weeded out. This positions the health department to better deal with serious health threats to all county residents. We urge the county board to support the plan.

We counsel all involved, though, that they be 100 percent assured that the women and children involved get the help they need. After all, they represent some of the neediest among us.