Here’s the problem, though — the need for this money doesn’t just go away. It’s not like we get to save $381 million dollars and that cost won’t be passed on elsewhere. So where is the cost going? Much of it will be passed on to area hospitals. HCMC, for example, estimates it will lose up to $109 million from GAMC cuts, and Regions hospital estimates it will lose $46 million, which is 10 percent of its gross revenue.
How are the hospitals supposed to replace that lost revenue? They can’t really make up for it with cuts in services — they are mandated to provide service to patients who come into their emergency rooms. That means the only real choice is to pass the cost onto their other patients. Just like Pawlenty replaced taxes with “fees,” he’s now avoiding tax increases by increasing your hospital bills. As famed economist Milton Friedman once said, there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
Minnesotans are still going to pay to provide health care, we’ll just pay for it differently. Now, instead of paying for it with taxes that can be distributed equitably, we’ll just dump the entire burden on Minnesotans who need to go to the hospital.
It is all peachy as long as the least among us bear the burden of our deficit. We know the state as a whole cannot bear any more tax burden, so putting it mostly o the poor is the right way to go about it? Kind of compounds the pain to GAMC that a minimum of 3100 people and their families will be losing their jobs and health benefits. Those 3100 can obviously bear the burden better than having Minnesotans pay $100-$300 more a year.
How do people who dont pay anything for a free service, bear the burden/ The freebie is just scaled back, not cut out. If you want to pay more per year, then pick up your check book and write a good will check to the state for a grand. You can deduct it from your taxes at the end of the year. That is if you can wait till the ened of the year to get your money back. I need the grand this month to pay for my bills. Most GAMC recipients are bums that dont do anything but feed off the generosity of others. Granted there are those that need help, that have contributed to society during their lifetime, they are deserving. But take a stroll down to the mission or Dorothy day and take a look at what your tax dollars are paying for. People standing around waiting for the next free hand out that someone might give them. Minnesota is the state where there is a free lunch, and we do more than any other state to help the poor. But how long can the people that pay taxes every year keep giving. I want hiking trails and good roads. I should have them because I go to work everday and do my fair share. I donate to different charities and help out the guy on the side of the road with his sign that says anything helps. I am tired of giving to those who have no desire in life to do anything but exist. I was homeless once for 7 months due to my alcoholism and I took advantage of a program at the mission that offered to help me get my life together. I changed who I was. Unfortunayely there are those who believe that others should take care of them because they are too lazy to care for themselves. I say thank-you Governor for having the insight for seeing what is truly draining the system
Protecting the rights of even the least individual among us is basically the only excuse the government has for even existing.
Ronald Reagan
Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.
Dalai Lama
‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
Jesus
what else is new. The people with the money have the power.
Just my two cents worth (after tax money of course): I see a lot of the middle and upper income people in various forums tending to bad-mouth those on any sort of public assistance. We have all known people who may not deserve public assistance. Lend an ear to this: work for 25 years, get a blood disorder of totally unexplained origin (NOT an STD or lack of responsible lifestyle), get told by the U of M and Mayo Clinic that you will die from this and it could be tomorrow or in 10 years. You literally cannot work and daily functions require assistance for home life to continue. Your family does this for you as much as possible. After numerous surgeries to save your life due to the ravages of this disorder the State of MN decides that the medicine you are on to save what’s left of your life is no longer on the “list” of meds they will pay for. It’s been 12 years since the start of this problem. 5 children and 9 grandchildren. Now the doctor says she will no longer treat you because the drugs you need to survive are narcotic and on a watch list. You have already signed a drug contract. Find a new doctor. You’ve got 30 days. No doctor will take the case because there is no name for this disease and they are apparently scared for their malpractice insurance. It goes without saying that you are already in a serious state of depression, extreme pain, hopelessness, and anger. And now Mr. Pawlenty will take enough money away from (actually eliminate) the GAMC program so even the PCA is not going to be able to come and help. NOW I ASK YOU, ARE WE SO BROKE AND CALLOUSED IN THIS STATE THAT OUR SICK CAN’T BE LOVED AND TAKEN CARE OF? It appears that the attitude is to cut funding, make meds nearly impossible to get for the ones who truly need them, make fun of the sick, let them suffer and die. If this is one of you then may God have mercy on you. This is a true story and includes maybe 2% of the story. And Mr. Pawlenty, bridges to be maintained and built is SUPPOSED to come from fuel tax. If you guys would quit spending the fuel tax money on hiking paths and parks you wouldn’t have to kill innocent, ill, destitute people. It truly is no shock why people despise politicians, the wealthy, and wall street. And by the way, the Stimulus Program was supposed to be for putting people to work - but you can fire PERSONAL CARE ASSISTANTS??????? Are these not people, or not employees, or what?? More political corruption is what it is.
Jon,
Your story is an eyopener, and a painful one. But how long should doctors treat this mystery disease? How many surgerys does it take. My insurance at work has a lifetime cap of 5 million dollars, and after that i am screwed. How long should taxpayers keep paying? I feel bad for what you or the person you are describing in your story are going through. I dont want to sound callous, but people die, all over the world. And if your doctor says there is nothing else to be done, then how is that Pawlentys fault. Your problem has been going on long before the GAMC cuts took place, and obviously after 12 years, the doctors have done all they can do. I believe that life is precious, and that all life is worth saving. But all you can do is blame Pawlenty. Blame God instead. He caused your issues not Pawlenty. We all die, we just dont know how it will end. If I knew I was going to die from a gunshot wound 5 years from today. You can bet I would lobby the hell out of congress to get guns banned. But should I expect the taxpayers to pay for the fight to save my life? I would be told that things are going to happen, and that I should just deal with it. Good luck in your struggle brother
Protecting the rights of even the least individual among us is basically the only excuse the government has for even existing.
Ronald Reagan
Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.
Dalai Lama
‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
Jesus
Just curious if you’d feel the same way if your precious wife or child were suffering from this illness. I hope you never have to face that situation; but be careful of what you say because things have a way of coming back to haunt you in this life.
Jon’s story, sadly, happens every day to many people. I’ve seen it too, and it is reality.
There are two morals of the story: First, a basic responsibility of government is to provide a safety net, and T-Paw has made a couple too many cuts into that net.
Second, the holy grail of healthcare is when a patient and doctor can make decisions on how to treat their disease, not a formulary like you elude to, regardless of if that formulary is dictated by a government bureau or an insurance company. Both the bureau and the company will make the decision based on spreadsheets, not on compassion.
Let’s face it, the cuts have to come from somewhere and the fact of the matter is Pawlenty is not targeting the poor, but cutting back on a program that has a huge expense. Take a look at GAMC, There are no real out of pocket costs to the recipient. 3 bucks for a co-pay. Now in order to get that kind of coverage, the state is paying for high end coverage from the insurance provider. I would love to have a 3 dollar co-pay, I pay 30. Additionally the cost of health care is going up and up. The fact of the matter is, if the cost of seeing a doctor wasnt so high, then maybe the cuts wouldnt be needed. Additionally, the GAMC program is not completely cut out, just scaled back. The new program will institute a 4 dollar montly premium with a cap of 10,000 per year for inpatient stays. I think this is reasonable. I will admit that Pawlenty should have done something when we were 3 billion in debt, not wait untl the 5 billion dollar mark. but now that we are at this juncture, what else can be done. Social service programs are expensive and their are many who abuse the services offered. I have a simple solution, everytime an adult on GAMC goes to the doctor for treatment, a drug test should be performed. If the person fails, they have 30 days to retake a drug test, if the results show continued abuse of drugs, then the person should be cut off of the program for 6 months and allowed to reapply if they can show that they have stopped using drugs.
If you think 10,000/year for inpatient stays is reasonable you’re either an idiot or you’ve never been in the hospital. That amount of money would be gone in less than 3 days in any hospital in the state. I’m not opposed at all to drug testing, including for people with commercial insurance. Of do you only want to test people on GAMC because you think all poor people are drug addicts?
“I have a simple solution, everytime an adult on GAMC goes to the doctor for treatment, a drug test should be performed. If the person fails, they have 30 days to retake a drug test, if the results show continued abuse of drugs, then the person should be cut off of the program for 6 months and allowed to reapply if they can show that they have stopped using drugs.”
So in order to save money, you propose testing everyone on GAMC every time they go to the doctor. Are these tests free? Where is the money going to come from? Is this a worthwhile expense when the vast, vast majority will likely pass the test? Will it catch alcoholics?
In short: terrible, terrible idea.
A $10,000 cap on inpatient stays is fine as long as the expectation is that only the most basic medical issues are treated, and the others will be left to linger.
Perhaps plenty of pain medication can be administered for $10,000. In same cases, that is about the only degree of treatment that kind of money would buy.
It is when regulations under-reimburse our hospitals while still demanding that all of the care be delivered that we force our hospitals to shift the costs to those with insurances. And then the insurances have to shift much of the cost to member premiums. And then everyone screams and yells.
There have always been people that abuse the system, I have a neighbor who thinks it’s her right as a citizen, but seriously sees nothing wrong with it no matter how much you argue with her. So if this is part of the problem maybe that should be the focus for a solution…she is a healthy able bodied, bottom line, LAZY person, and there is no reason why she should not be working, not only is she not, but she has passed this down to her grown children as well. I’m a single parent working 17 hours a day to make ends meet and I’m paying for her ***! Yes, it makes me angry because I know I’m not alone. The big ? is always, “what do we do?” and whatever you do is never going to please all the people.
One thing I have learned from my friends on this board is to not let the exception cases force you to design a subpar system for everyone else. Yes, people abuse government programs. Programs need to be designed with a fraud prevention component, rather than being afraid of the program altogether because of a few bad apples.
Much like we shouldn’t over-regulate capitalism because there are a couple Enrons out there, we shouldn’t remove the safety net for good, honest people because there are losers who choose to take advantage of the system.
And my definition of safety net is just that: A minimum acceptable level of support. Where I differ from many of the other posters here is how exhaustive or expansive that safety net ought to be. If you rely on the safety net, expect the basics and that is all.