Twin Cities Daily Planet (https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/tag/health/page/6/)
Why would the future of people with mental illness be placed in the hands of physicians who have ties to the drug industry? About one in four adults (or 57.7 million people) in America suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder each year. Continue Reading
It’s a shocking fact that over 54% of homeless people in the Twin Cities have a mental illness. Helping them off the streets can be tough-but a pioneering program at People Incorporated Mental Health Services has been highly successful in working with this vulnerable population, moving scores of people out of the cold and into their own homes in just over two years. Unfortunately, this effective program, created in cooperation with the University of Minnesota’s Department of Psychiatry, is earmarked for elimination in Governor Pawlenty’s proposed budget. Why? Not because they are ineffective, but because it’s easy to cut services to the most vulnerable and disenfranchised. Continue Reading
Those who oppose including a public option in health care reform do so for a variety of reasons and motives. At the most obvious end, is the Republicans who simply wish to kill health care altogether, thus the public option becomes a leverage point for their opposition. At the other end are those (mostly Democrats) who are frightened at the prospect of being labeled some sort of left wing liberals beholden to government intervention, when the next election rolls around this November. In regard to the Republicans, and others stonewalling reform, their suggestions are pretty clear, and disingenuous at best. Often they offer spurious ideas which they know are ineffective or unacceptable – simple solutions like tort reform, and “letting insurance companies sell across state lines”. Some Democrats have suggested the use of “exchanges or co-ops” in lieu of a public option. In either case, the absence of a public option will be harmful to Minnesota consumers. Here’s why. To begin with, the market share of health insurance in our state is incredibly controlled almost exclusively between two companies now. Continue Reading
With the number of uninsured Minnesotans reaching nearly half a million in 2009, and others in danger of being cut off by the state’s planned phase-out of the General Assistance Medical Care program for the state’s poorest, the question becomes, what can Minnesota do to keep its residents insured?
More than 100,000 more Minnesotans went without health insurance in 2009 than in 2007, according to a survey conducted by the Minnesota Department of Health and the University of Minnesota School of Public Health released this month. “The economic recession has had a clear impact on health insurance access and affordability,” Minnesota Commissioner of Health Dr. Sanne Magnan said after the survey was released to the public. “While it is not surprising that we found a higher rate of uninsurance in 2009, these study results highlight the need to sustain Minnesota’s health reform efforts that are designed to contain rising health care costs.” The facts:
Minnesota historically has had one of the lowest rates of uninsurance in the country, but the number of uninsured is growing as the number of Minnesotans who have health insurance through their employer decreased from 62.5 percent in 2007 to 57.2 percent in 2009. Over the same period, the percentage of Minnesotans who were uninsured increased from 7.2 percent to 9.1 percent. Continue Reading
Next week will see fireworks in the House of Representatives and the final word on how bad Minnesota’s state budget situation is before lawmakers have to get to work fixing it.On Monday, House DFLers could attempt to override Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s veto of SF 2168, a bill the Legislature passed overwhelmingly that would have preserved public health insurance under the state’s General Assistance Medical Care program, which is set to expire on March 1 due to Pawlenty’s budget unallotments last year.The Senate voted this week to override Pawlenty’s veto, but House DFLers must find three Republicans to joint them in order to complete the override, and House Republican leaders have promised their caucus will stand with their governor.Pawlenty and legislative leaders are expected to negotiate over the weekend to find a compromise that would keep an estimated 33,000 of the poorest Minnesotans on the health insurance plan, at least for another year.In a press conference on Friday, House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, DFL-Minneapolis, said she would prefer a negotiated agreement, but if one did not materialize, the veto override effort could take place Monday.On Tuesday, Pawlenty’s budget gurus will release the state’s February economic forecast, which is the last piece of financial information lawmakers will have as they settle in to balance the state’s budget before they go home this spring.Minnesota Management and Budget Commissioner Tom Hanson and State Economist Tom Stinson will release the forecast at a press conference at the Capitol at 11:15 a.m. that will also be streamed live on the Senate Media Web site here.The previous official forecast from November put the state’s budget deficit for the current budget cycle ending next June at $1.2 billion, even after Pawlenty’s unilateral budget slashing, and there hasn’t been much evidence that things have gotten much better or worse since then for the state.The forecast will also give another hint as to how big the next two-year budget cycle’s deficit is going to be for the state. The November forecast predicted a $5.4 billion deficit, not counting inflation. Continue Reading
Governor Pawlenty submitted his supplementary budget Monday night, and advocates for the mentally ill found enormous cuts for programs that assisted the people they help.The Minnesota Mental Health Legislative Network and their supporters gathered Tuesday at noon at the Capitol with news that Governor Pawlenty’s budget called for $347 million in cuts to health services. The bulk of these cuts are the proposed $250 million per year in cuts in aid to local governments. Ed Eide of the Mental Health Assocation of Minnesota said that this translates to a dramatic cut in services for the mentally ill. Free Speech ZoneThe Free Speech Zone offers a space for contributions from readers, without editing by the TC Daily Planet. This is an open forum for articles that otherwise might not find a place for publication, including news articles, opinion columns, announcements and even a few press releases.Much of the focus of the day’s advocacy centered around the GAMC and the current effort by the legislature to keep the program running beyond March 31, when it is scheduled to expire.Representative Larry Hosch (DFL- St. Joseph) criticized Gov. Pawlenty for making cuts to essential services. “The Governor says that we should sit down and discuss the budget like a family,” Hosch said. “But we don’t tell members of our family ‘you can’t sit with us, you’re too expensive.'”Senator John Marty (DFL-Roseville) said that a single-payer system has been introduced in the House and that it should become law. Marty has promised such a system should he win the Governor’s race. Continue Reading
Recently I attended a greatly informative information meeting on the realities about, and need for, Universal Health Care. The meeting was facilitated by the Minnesota Universal Health Care CoalitionThe experience led me to recall my own personal history, which was published as a column in the January 20, 2010, edition of the Woodbury (MN) Bulletin. The column follows:Forty-five years ago this month my wife, not yet 22, was actively engaged in the very difficult work of dying. Our first child was not yet one year old. We lived in a tiny apartment in the small town in western North Dakota where I was teaching school.Barbara, who had kidney disease, was too weak to take care of her son; she was in the hospital about as much as she was at home. Continue Reading
According to a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, 31% of veterans receiving care at a Veterans Affairs facility were diagnosed with a mental illness.
Billionaires for Wealthcare visited Senator Klobuchar’s Minneapolis office Friday to present the Senator with a million dollar check in appreciation of her refusal to take a position on the Public Option. Billionaires around the country are optimistic that spending $5,000,000 weekly on Congress is successfully defeating meaningful healthcare reform. Unfortunately, Klobuchar’s staff was reluctant to be publicly videotaped accepting the million dollar contribution. Her Director of Constituent Services, Kali Cruz, repeatedly requested the Billionaires to come into a private room without a camera so that the privacy of people filling out job applications would not be violated. Senator Klobuchar has courageously refused to listen to the two thirds of the American people who back a Public Option, a Medicare for all proposal in the healthcare reform legislation. The Billionaires applaud her leadership in not releasing a position statement on the Public Option. There is a lot of constituent pressure to support a Public Option, but Klobuchar is wisely taking into consideration the millions in campaign contributions made by the Billionaires and the healthcare industry. Billionaire representatives Mrs. I. M. Rich and Mrs. Dee Regulation gushed over the fabulous lifestyles they enjoy as wives of healthcare industry executives. They each have multiple homes, private jets, and yachts – courtesy of an industry that makes enormous profits from denying people medical care. They bemoan any reform legislation that would limit health insurance profits. Mrs. Rich was ecstatic about the potential for profits if everyone is required to have health insurance and there are government subsidies. Continue Reading
by Pam Colby | September 12, 2009 • I rode my bike to the farmer’s market this morning, loaded up both bike bags with produce, listened to a great singer named Kari Tauring who is from Denmark and performs music of the Viking Age. Chilling to hear. Continue Reading