At The Capitol / Senate OKs pared-down restoration of GAMC
February 12, 2010
by Jason Hoppin, Pioneer Press, Feb. 12, 2010. Governor signaled he'd oppose plan with hospital surcharge. Read more »
Health care for state officials: Is it fair when others go without?
February 11, 2010
by Casey Selix, MinnPost. Feb. 11, 2010. When Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty used a line-item veto and unallotment last year to eliminate $396 million in funding for a state health-care program for the poor, chances are that he wasn't worried about paying for health care for himself or his family.While in office, the governor does not pay a dime toward his monthly insurance premium. Read more »
Session-opening Save GAMC rally makes its point with the power of the pen
February 05, 2010
by Casey Selix, Feb. 4, 2010, MinnPost. On the first day of the 2010 legislative session, advocates for the poor from across the state called on Pawlenty and lawmakers to restore funding to General Assistance Medical Care, a 35-year-old program serving on average 35,000 impoverished adults without children on any given day. Read more »
Doctors, dentists, therapists urge legislators, governor to save GAMC
February 03, 2010
Star Tribune, Feb. 3, 2010. General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC) has been the bedrock of the social safety net in Minnesota, and cutting the program would be disastrous to all Minnesotans. It is a moral imperative that Minnesota save GAMC. Read more »
Medically vulnerable are anxious, confused
February 03, 2010
By JIM SPENCER, Star Tribune, Feb. 3, 2010. What Al Phenow knows about Minnesota's plan to end General Assistance Medical Care came from the rumor mill. It didn't explain that he would have to pay insurance premiums to get his new coverage, or that if he missed a single premium his insurance would disappear. Read more »
Lori Sturdevant: Doctors propose state tax increase
February 02, 2010
Star Tribune, Feb. 2, 2010. The Minnesota Medical Association's Board of Trustees voted to support broad-based tax increases that would support health care programs. Read more »
“No new taxes” makes GAMC fix elusive
February 01, 2010
By Lori Sturdevant, Star Tribune, Feb. 1, 2010. DFL legislators' attempts to continue medical care for Minnesota's poorest adults suffered a setback last week, when the Minnesota Medical Association announced its opposition to the proposal lawmakers developed to preserve a stripped-down version of General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC) through mid-2011. Read more »
State was advised of court-challenge plans before GAMC extension
January 28, 2010
by Casey Selix, MinnPost, Jan. 27, 2010. Two days before today's announcement that General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC) coverage for impoverished adults would be extended by a month, legal-aid attorneys contacted attorneys for the state advising that they planned to seek a temporary restraining order challenging the governor's unallotment of $15 million for the program. Read more »
Star Tribune letter of the day: As HCMC goes begging, the governor gets an invitation
January 26, 2010
Each Wednesday I spend four hours volunteering at the Dignity Center in Minneapolis with folks who have no money, live on the streets and have medical issues. The impending cutoff of GAMC threatens to end medical treatment for these needy people. Read more »
Save GAMC—by raising it above lesser priorities
January 21, 2010
by Peter Nelson, policy fellow at the Center of the American Experiment. Pioneer Press Jan. 20, 2010. A substantial effort is under way to save Minnesota's General Assistance Medical Care program (GAMC) from expiring on March 1. As someone who wholly supports the reinstatement of GAMC, I'm increasingly worried this effort might fail because, to date, none of the discussions at the Capitol adequately consider the state's broader budget mess — the overriding reason why GAMC is set to end in the first place. Read more »
Stop the loss of health care to 35,000 poor
January 19, 2010
Letter to the editor, Star Tribune. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane." Read more »
Plan to cover health care for needy is unfair, Hennepin County says
January 15, 2010
by Kevin Duchschere, Star Tribune. Hennepin County officials say that a DFL-sponsored plan to charge counties extra to cover health care for their neediest residents would have an unfair impact on the state's largest county and biggest public hospital. Read more »
Forum on GAMC cuts in Rochester
January 15, 2010
Rochester Post Bulletin. The Joint Religious Legislative Coalition sponsored a forum in Rochester Monday night to discuss how the elimination of a program that provides health care for low-income Minnesotans could end up impacting the community. Read more »
Patients, police chief speak out at Capitol hearing in fight to save health plan for poorest Minneso
January 14, 2010
by Jason Hoppin, Pioneer Press. Pushing ahead with plans to restore expiring health care coverage for the poorest Minnesotans, an overflow crowd packed a Capitol committee hearing Wednesday to support a program many said could mean the difference between life and death. Read more »
Crafting GAMC’s successor needs Pawlenty’s attention
January 13, 2010
by Lori Sturdevant, Star Tribune. Not many legislative committee hearings play to a more-than-packed house. One did Wednesday -- one that described the personal, social and economic costs of eliminating General Assistance Medical Care. Read more »
State cuts to hospitals would have trickle down effect for Minnesotans
January 11, 2010
As Minnesota lawmakers try to balance the state's budget shortfall, representative Tom Huntley says it could be a rough road for hospitals and clinics. Huntley says if hospitals lose state reimbursements, they'd likely have to raise their rates, which would tack on extra costs for insured patients. Read more »
Regions Hospital shelved $36M mental-health building as Minnesota cut aid
January 05, 2010
Count hundreds of construction workers among those hurt by Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s line-item veto of the state’s General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC) health insurance program for the poor. Read more »
For 33,000 Minnesotans, poverty and illness are about to take a new toll
December 28, 2009
One morning last week I stood in the hallways of the State Capitol, outside the governor's office, and listened. I listened to a reading of 1,000 names, representing people on General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC) who will lose their health care coverage in March. Read more »
Web sites encourage public support for GAMC
December 21, 2009
Facing millions of dollars of lost state aid for medical care to the poor, metro Level 1 trauma center hospitals, several health care providers and professional groups have launched contact-your-legislator Web sites to support reinstatement of the funding. Read more »
Editorial: Working hard, and smart, on GAMC
December 16, 2009
We salute those who are working hard, from a variety of perspectives and philosophies, to fix the problem created by deep recession and Gov. Pawlenty's decision to end General Assistance Medical Care, effective March 1. That decision was a budgetary one, intended to make the books balance. But because much of the care will still be provided by hospitals and clinics, the issue becomes, how do we pay for it? A House committee hearing this week showed that legislators, hospital officials and the Pawlenty Administration are searching for an effective solution. Read more »