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Cuts to Medical Care Hurt Poor Minnesotans
Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s veto of funding for General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC) will leave 33,000 of Minnesota’s poorest and most vulnerable adults without health care.
Pawlenty’s May 2009 veto and unilateral unallotment process to balance the state’s budget ends funding for adults who live in poverty and don’t have custodial care of children. The cuts become effective March 1, 2010. GAMC provides coverage for single, childless adults with annual incomes of less than $7,800.
Eliminating state-sponsored insurance for single adults runs contrary to the governor’s oft-stated goal of eliminating homelessness, says Kathy Tomlin, director of Catholic Charities’ Office for Social Justice.
“Ramsey and Hennepin counties and the State of Minnesota have all laid out plans to end homelessness in the near future, and cutting GAMC flies in the face of that goal,” Tomlin says. “The relationship between people having access to medical care and their ability to maintain stable housing cannot be overstated.”
The GAMC cuts mean people with mental illness won’t have access to medications that help control their disease, she says. Those medications, Tomlin explains, often mean the difference between maintaining housing and living on the street. Nearly 70 percent of Catholic Charities’ housing clients self identify as having a mental illness.
Despite assertions to the contrary, people who receive GAMC cannot afford the premiums for state-subsidized MinnesotaCare. Most GAMC recipients live on $203 a month.
Minneapolis resident Robert Fischer, 51, struggled with homelessness for years. He lives in his own apartment and receives health care through GAMC.
When the funding cuts become effective March 1, Fischer will have to find a new way to deal with his depression, degenerative disk disease and sleep apnea. He cannot afford insurance nor the medication and treatments that treat his disorders.
He’s already cutting back on his medications so he won’t have to quit all at once, Fischer told Minnesota Public Radio.
In a June interview with Minnesota Public Radio, he says, “On my refrigerator I've got a little marker-pen and I've got the date, February 28, 2010, D-day. I’ve got my plan.”
To inform clients who currently use GAMC for medical care, the Office for Social Justice held a presentation at Branch III. Read more about this event.
Read more about the effects of the GAMC cuts on Catholic Charities' blog
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