We are at a Crossroads
This last Thursday at the Moorhead Communities Meeting on GAMC, many of the consequences of cutting GAMC were outlined. From dental care in the Emergency Room to the rising cost of co-payments that are virtually impossible to pay, the Moorhead community commented on how these cuts, and the broken healthcare system in general, are affecting their community.
Brian kicked off the meeting with a short history of the issue and general description of the wide-ranging affects. He described how this program is meant to help our most helpless and poor citizens, our “economic refugees,” and he emphasized that we need to look at and be cautious of the future problems cutting this program will lead to.
We were happy to have Representatives Paul Marquart and Morrie Lanning join us in discussion with both of their views!
Marquart said we need to have priorities and that we are at a crossroads in which we are “moving away from where we want to be”. He outlined the huge money loss that Hospitals will be suffering, and emphasized the major expenses of Emergency Room visits. He also pointed out that GAMC was chosen to be cut rather then there be a Tax increase to people making 250,000 (the top 9% of the Minnesota population).
Lanning started off by outlining the budget shortfall of 1 billion dollars. He advised that we help to make a better transition between GAMC and Minnesota Care, asking where our money is being spent and examining our current subsidies. Lanning did also say that to help the transition between GAMC and Minnesota Care, the people that were on GAMC wouldn’t have to meet all the same requirements and follow the rules as those who are currently on Minnesota Care. He said this solution was only a temporary one, and we can only hope that he was being truthful.
The Moorhead meeting was well attended – over 50 people! -- and very passionate. It brought to attention in a very real way that people’s everyday lives will be changed and affected when GAMC is cut.
We have to keep putting pressure on our representatives, so that this problem is solved at the beginning of session in February!
View more pictures from the community discussion in Moorhead.
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