Posted: 08/09/09 03:12
by Dave Mindeman
The budget that has been imposed on us by our Governor is causing the expected pain, but few talk about it with any kind of megaphone:
Homeless Speak Out Against Pawlenty's Health Cuts
The Twin Cities homeless are banding together to fight back against health care cuts. For weeks, they've been telling their stories to camera crews across the metro. They're hoping their message on YouTube will get Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty's attention. It looks much different than the discussion did at the state Capitol, or the one going on in Washington. But, on the streets of Minneapolis the health care conversation is no less important.
Pawlenty Cuts Healthcare for the Poor
The realties of the GAMC cuts.
As hospitals lay off personnel, reduce bed counts, and scale back outpatient clinics statewide, everybody will suffer, but it's the disenfranchised who'll feel the pinch most acutely. Monica Nilsson directs street outreach for St. Stephen's Shelter in Minneapolis, dealing with the city's most isolated, most exposed citizens—the bridge-dwellers. To her, the effect of the veto will be measured in human terms.
"There's going to be a lot more people walking around outside talking to themselves without this program," she says. "Instead of preventative health care, we'll be waiting for the crisis and responding. I know some people wish these people would just die or move away, but the reality is they'll just get sicker and be more expensive for us all."
Kids in Poverty: The Numbers Grow
Child poverty in Minnesota rose 33 percent between 2000 and 2007, six times the national average, and several other measures of child well-being declined, according to a widely-watched annual report on the nation's children.
The majority of that period was under Pawlenty's watch.
Minnesota Dentists Warn Cuts Will Prevent Dental Care
A $6.2 million cut to Minnesota's critical-access dental program will force dentists out of business and make it more difficult for low-income patients and those without dental insurance to have access to care, according to critics.
You may notice that many of these health related cuts result in these patients, who are denied state help, using emergency rooms as their only means of care.
That cost is greater.
I guess that will give Governor Pawlenty another reason to slam the "growing" costs of health and human services.
Anybody see the causality loop here?
