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State Representative Patti Fritz
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-8237
For more information contact: Sandy Connolly 651-296-8877
NEWS COLUMN
Health Care cuts threaten rural Minnesota
For most of my adult life, I have been involved in the health care field. I have witnessed first hand what it takes to provide adequate care to patients, and I'm familiar with the financial challenges for both the provider and the patient.
The cuts to our state health care system that are in the Governor's budget proposal frighten me. Under this proposal, 18,000 workers in Greater Minnesota will lose their MinnesotaCare coverage. In fact, the cuts are so deep that a part-time worker earning the minimum wage of $5.15 per hour would make too much to qualify for that coverage.
On top of that, only 38 percent of the employers in Greater Minnesota can afford to provide health benefits to their workers, something that is only going to get worse over the next few years as options for coverage vanish.
When people lose their health care coverage, they often delay seeking treatment when they first get sick. Instead, the emergency room becomes the first stop for health care. This level of care is more expensive and often goes uncompensated. These unpaid for visits hurt the hospitals and increase all of our insurance premiums and health care costs.
These kinds of problems have caused 23 hospitals in Minnesota to close since 1991, which has resulted in a loss of 1,594 hospital beds, and more could be lost in the next couple of years. To add insult to injury, the administration is also proposing cuts of almost $56 million in payments to hospitals, resulting in the loss of another $40 million in matching Federal funds. Greater Minnesota hospitals alone will absorb roughly $37 million of the $96 million in total cuts.
There is a also a growing shortage of physicians, health care professionals and clinics in Rural Minnesota, giving us dwindling access to health care. In the Twin Cities, there is one physician for every 830 residents, while in Rural Minnesota the ratio is one for every 1,430 residents. Dentists are in even shorter supply, one for every 1,820 residents, and most clinics and hospitals are having a hard time finding nurses, lab technicians and other health care workers to fill openings.
This budget proposal is not an answer to the growing health care crisis our state is facing. Instead of cutting people, we need to be looking for ways to increase the number of Minnesotans with health care coverage. We also need to improve access to health care in rural areas and help strengthen the financial foundation at rural health care facilities. As legislators, we need to think long and hard before we take another step toward under funding and undermining one of our core Minnesota values, that of providing adequate and affordable health care to all of our citizens.
Please feel free to contact me with advice or questions. You can call me at 1-800-292-0012, write to me at 389 State Office Building, St. Paul, MN 55155 or email me at rep.patti.fritz@house.mn.
News Items
- STATE REP. PATTI FRITZ PARTICIPATES IN START OF LEGISLATIVE SESSION - (Posted: Jan 9 2013 3:32PM)
- Rep. Fritz: Homeowners, Farmers Need Property Tax Relief - (Posted: 2012-05-01 00:00:00)
- Rep. Fritz: Let’s Vote on a Bonding Bill that Benefits All - (Posted: 2012-04-19 00:00:00)
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