Just wanted to highlight Representative Ellison’s efforts in Washington to keep folks in Minnesota on MinnesotaCare. This August buried in an administrative ruling the Bush team ruled that if a family’s kids are covered by SCHIP the parents can’t get Government subsidies for health care.
Every single one of Minnesota’s representatives in Washington protested this decision and yesterday and Representative Ellison introduced legislation to keep this ruling from going into effect until 2009. Read about it in the Strib here.
MinnesotaCare works well and the Federal Government should support, and respect that, not try to inhibit it.
After the jump, Ellison’s press release.
Ellison fights to keep 18,000 Minnesotans from losing health insurance
Bill will save state from losing over $135 million in federal funds
Washington, D.C. – Congressman Keith Ellison introduced legislation that will protect 18,000 Minnesotans from being terminated from Minnesota’s Medicaid program. The Congressman’s legislation is in direct response to a recent federal administrative ruling that would radically alter Minnesota’s innovative Medicaid program MinnesotaCare.
The State of Minnesota had worked with the federal government for more than a decade to renew two of its current federal health care waivers for Medicaid programs. In a callous and over-reaching decision this past August, the Bush Administration tried to force Minnesota to curtail its Medicaid program by September 10th or risk losing $135 million in federal dollars. Ellison’s initiative requires the federal government to extend Minnesota’s health care waivers through April 2009.
“The Bush Administration has once again shown their priorities by choosing to cut health care for 18,000 of our most vulnerable citizens in Minnesota. I am hopeful that my legislation will be quickly adopted by Congress, sparing Minnesotans undue pain until a long-term solution is available,” Ellison said.
“With 46 million Americans still uninsured, with 6 percent unemployment (the highest it’s been in five years); and with mortgage foreclosures at an all-time high, we should not be taking away health care from Minnesotans who need it now more than ever,” Ellison concluded.
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Sean brings to light a frequent problem for Minnesota, and other states that make efforts to aid their most needy citizens. Former Representative Sabo spoke at the last Stone Arch Discussion Group (click here to listen http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/540381/32304564) and one of the comments he made was that many Federal programs are set up to deduct state aid from the Federal equation. So when States like Minnesota set up a program to help people, that money is counted against us in Federal equations, while states like Texas, with very little safety net, get more money. There is often a Federal reward for not providing a Safety net. I’d like to see our Congressional Delegation join with similar delegations and take this into consideration when writing bills in the future. Thank you Sean for bringing this to light.