QUICK HIT: Senate Budget Release - Good News!

All three major state players (Governor, House of Representatives and Senate) have now released their budget proposals for what should happen to funding for health care and human services during this state’s latest budget deficit. The Governor would eliminate General Assistance and end income assistance to thousands of families with disabled parents and children on the Minnesota Family Investment Program. The House would cut what is already deep-poverty level assistance to some families, cut funding that has helped create short-term skill-building jobs and cut funding for services to families that turn to General Assistance. But the Senate shows it is possible to build a budget that makes no cuts to MFIP and General Assistance. Nor does the Senate make the devastating cuts to mental health services the House proposes. Nneither the House nor Senate cut off health care coverage to adults without children on Minnesota Care.

Both the House and Senate’s budget proposals include proposals to move people from General Assistance Medical Care to Medical Assistance, now possible because of health care reform. The advantage to such a move would be that the federal government pays half the cost and the coverage is much more complete – a significant advantage in light of the fact that most hospitals are declining to take part in what they see as a deeply underfunded General Assistance Medical Care program that emerged from the negotiations between the legislature and the Governor after his veto. How that question is resolved will be a critical part of the negotiations for the Health and Human Services budget as it moves forward. Click here for more information! You can also find a good summary of the cuts made in the House Budget Proposal here.

Thanks to Affirmative Options for the update, check back here for more information as more is released!

It is really the work of advocates around the state keeping pressure on the legislature that these programs are being taken seriously! Keep up the hard work, we are not done yet!