Call to Action: "No" to cuts to Health and Human Services Budget
HF945/SF800 Health and Human Services Omnibus bill is big. It is also fluid right now, as it is still between Conference Committee and the Governor's desk, and it probably won’t be agreed upon for a while. As a result of this, we have tried to let you know about the things that we are aware of in the bill that are most problematic.
The Republicans propose a cut of $482 million to the Health and Human Services Budget. This will result in the following:
- shut down MnSure in 2019.
- raise MinnesotaCare premiums to the maximum allowed under federal law (as much as 70%).
- ultimately effectively eliminate MinnesotaCare, affecting over 100,000 Minnesotans.
- impose significant cuts to the budget for the Minnesota Department of Health which will negatively impact its provision of mental health care, as well as its ability to respond to public health crisis, like the current measles outbreak.
At the same time, the bill allows non-profit Health Management Organizations to convert to for-profit businesses with little oversight or regulation while walking away with billions in assets meant for the public interest.
Furthermore, as the AHCA stands at the moment, Minnesota is set to lose $2.5billion in cuts to federal funding in the first 18 months of the bill becoming law.
This is not the time to be cutting back on properly funding essential services like Health and Human Services. These kinds on cuts will affect the most vulnerable.
Please call, email or tweet any of the following members and the Governor and let them know why these cuts are such a bad idea:
Chairs – Sen. Michelle Benson and Rep. Matt Dean; Members - Rep. Dean, Rep. Schomacker, Rep. Kiel, Rep. Albright, Rep. Schultz, Sen. Benson, Sen. Abeler, Sen. Housley, Sen. Utke, Sen. Lourey.
Find contacts for Conference Committee House members from this list
Find contacts for Conference Committee Senate members from this list
You can also contact your own MN senator and representative about this issue as the bills will return to the House and Senate for a vote in the next week.
Here is the latest update on the bill from Mn Leg. Daily Session: http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/sessiondaily/SDView.aspx?StoryID=12874