Poor tell how loss of medical assistance will hurt them
Duluthian Tommy O’Neill painted a grim picture Thursday of how his nearly 60-year-old body would combat five chronic conditions without the aid of a state health-care program for single poor adults that is set to expire in March.By: Andy Greder, Duluth News Tribune
- Medical assistance
Duluthian Tommy O’Neill painted a grim picture Thursday of how his nearly 60-year-old body would combat five chronic conditions without the aid of a state health-care program for single poor adults that is set to expire in March.
O’Neill’s was one of eight testimonials from city residents struggling with disease and illness who have relied on General Assistance Medical Care to provide access to treatments and care that they could not otherwise afford.
GAMC “has been extremely helpful,” said O’Neill, who can take up to 15 medications to battle Crohn’s disease and other ailments. “They’ve helped with my medications. They’ve helped with my surgeries. They’ve helped me with my medical bills.”
“I’m grateful to GAMC,” said O’Neill, whose conditions forced him to retire in 2004 after nearly 40 years of work in Duluth. “Over the years, I’ve paid into the system. Without the system the way it is, I would be dead.”
Reps. Tom Huntley and Roger Reinert, officials from St. Luke’s hospital and SMDC Health System and other health-care advocates met Thursday afternoon to discuss what Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s decision to stop GAMC means to the more than 50 people gathered at Churches United in Ministry and the estimated 3,600 in similar situations in St. Louis County and 30,000 in Minnesota.
“We need to tell more stories like yours,” Huntley said to O’Neill. “We need people in the middle class and the upper class to know that they are one day away from the same thing.”
Huntley, chairman of the state Legislature’s Health and Human Services Division, said cutting GAMC freed up $400 million in the annual state budget, and efforts to revive it will be one of his top priorities at the Legislature’s session in February.
“The governor wants to make the state budget look good, so he just eliminates it,” Huntley said. “That makes the state budget look more balanced. The trouble is that the people on GAMC don’t go away. They are still going to be in the state. They are still going to get sick. They are still going to need medical treatment. They will still certainly go to the emergency room, and the hospitals will still treat them. The problem is that the emergency room is the worst place to treat most people.”
GAMC was put on the chopping block in June when Pawlenty balanced the budget by making $2.7 billion in cuts without calling the Legislature into a special session.
Alex Carey, a Pawlenty spokesman, said providing medical assistance to the neediest in the state is and has been a priority of the governor’s, but efforts to revive GAMC lie with the Legislature.
“The governor is open to discussion with the Legislature as long as they come up with a reasonable way of funding General Assistance Medical Care,” Carey said.
The cost to St. Luke’s and SMDC for lost reimbursements from this program was estimated at more than $15 million for two years.
“When we saw that this bill was coming out, we said that it was an illusion,” said John Strange, president and CEO of St. Luke’s. “The fact is that the need is going to continue. We know that. We know that you are going to need the care. We are standing up and saying we will provide the care for you.”
St. Stephen’s Human Services in Minneapolis has collected more than 200 testimonials from people about the sometimes grave consequences to life without GAMC.
“In short, we believe it’s a moral issue that we save GAMC,” said Kenza Hadj-Moussa, education coordinator at St. Stephen’s, whose group hopes to gather 1,000 testimonials by February. “We believe it’s a human rights issue that we save GAMC. We have interviewed hundreds of people and we know that it provides stability for people that are living in crisis and are living in despair. And at the end of the day, we cannot compromise the poorest and the sickest Minnesotans for the sake of the budget. It is just not right.”
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