A grim statistic

A few weeks ago, when Rachel and I tweeted live from the Health Care and Human Services Finance Division and Policy Committee, I was struck by a phrase that Hennepin County Commissioner Mike Opat used.

Commissioner Opat said that if the state chooses not to provide programs like General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC), the difference is literally one of “stepping over bodies in the street.”

There was an audible gasp in the room. Since last May, when the unallotment first occurred, people have claimed the GAMC crisis to be a moral issue, and have named it as a matter of life and death. There has been outcry throughout the state over this inhumane act. But until then, I had not heard it painted in such grim and gruesome terms.

Today’s story in the Star Tribune underscores the reality of Commissioner Opat’s message. Indigent deaths across the state have increased by as much as 25% per county, a trend that is being reflected across the country.

The numbers reflect not necessarily an increase in deaths, but an increase in the circumstances surrounding these deaths: because of increased layoffs, lowered wages, and fewer jobs, people are not as able to pay for their loved ones’ burials at the rate sustained before the nation’s economic crisis.

It seems to me that individuals who have been buried at the expense of the county in Minnesota might also be the most likely to have used GAMC as their primary medical insurer.

This begs the question: what happens to this number of county burials if GAMC is cut? And is Minnesota prepared to handle the repercussions of cutting a program that minimizes inhumane deaths? What do you think?

 Alison Killeen
Statewide Organizer