Let’s make sure our community’s voices are heard! The lives of people of color getting better depends on US casting ballots to make sure our concerns are priorities for the people we elect. We can’t wait to EXPAND THE VOTE and build community power with you.
Questions or comments? Contact Kandace Montgomery, Justice 4 All Organizer (Northside Based). kandace@takeactionminnesota.org, 207-459-6320… Continue reading »
What if we could stop the political pendulum from swinging from left to right in Minnesota? With your help, we can move our politics permanently towards real equity and deep democracy.
Sign up to join TakeAction Members to talk to fellow Minnesotans about their priorities, our vision and about re-electing progressive champion Zach Dorholt so we can keep building equity and democracy in our state.… Continue reading »
What if we could stop the political pendulum from swinging from left to right in Minnesota? With your help, we can move our politics permanently towards real equity and deep democracy.
Sign up to join TakeAction Members to talk to fellow Minnesotans about their priorities, our vision and about re-electing progressive champions so we can keep building an economy that puts people first.… Continue reading »
What if we could stop the political pendulum from swinging from left to right in Minnesota? With your help, we can move our politics permanently towards real equity and deep democracy.
Sign up to join TakeAction Members to talk to fellow Minnesotans about their priorities, our vision and about re-electing progressive champions so we can keep building an economy that puts people first.… Continue reading »
On October 16th, TakeAction volunteers will be calling for women’s economic justice in all three of our offices. From Grand Rapids to Duluth to St. Paul, we’ll be talking to voters about why we need to re-elect champions for women’s economic justice this year!
Sign up here to join us at 5pm for a meal and conversation about what’s on tap for women’s economic justice this legislative session, then we’ll hop on the phones for Representative Barb Yarusso, one of our endorsed candidates and champion for women in our state.… Continue reading »
What if we could stop the political pendulum from swinging from left to right in Minnesota? With your help, we can move our politics permanently towards real equity and deep democracy.
Sign up to join TakeAction Members to talk to fellow Minnesotans about their priorities, our vision and about re-electing progressive champions so we can keep building an economy that puts people first.… Continue reading »
What if we could stop the political pendulum from swinging from left to right in Minnesota? With your help, we can move our politics permanently towards real equity and deep democracy.
Sign up to join TakeAction Members to talk to fellow Minnesotans about their priorities, our vision and about re-electing progressive champions so we can keep building an economy that puts people first.… Continue reading »
What if we could stop the political pendulum from swinging from left to right in Minnesota? With your help, we can move our politics permanently towards real equity and deep democracy.
Sign up to join TakeAction Members to talk to fellow Minnesotans about their priorities, our vision and about re-electing progressive champions so we can keep building an economy that puts people first.… Continue reading »
What if we could stop the political pendulum from swinging from left to right in Minnesota? With your help, we can move our politicspermanently towards real equity and deep democracy.
Sign up to join TakeAction Members to talk to fellow Minnesotans about their priorities, our values, and electing progressive champions like Representative Yvonne Selcer so we can keep building equity and democracy in our state.
… Continue reading »
What if we could stop the political pendulum from swinging from left to right in Minnesota? With your help, we can move our politicspermanently towards real equity and deep democracy.
Sign up to join TakeAction Members to talk to fellow Minnesotans about their priorities, our vision and about re-electing progressive champions so we can keep building an economy that puts people first.… Continue reading »
What if we could stop the political pendulum from swinging from left to right in Minnesota? With your help, we can move our politicspermanently towards real equity and deep democracy.
Sign up to join TakeAction Members to talk to fellow Minnesotans about their priorities… Continue reading »
What if we could stop the political pendulum from swinging from left to right in Minnesota? With your help, we can move our politicspermanently towards real equity and deep democracy.
Sign up to join TakeAction Members to talk to fellow Minnesotans about their priorities… Continue reading »
Dolores, one of our members, came in last night with a new gift from her grandson…we don’t think any one will be able to miss her new “button”!
Earlier this year, I couldn’t wait for October 1st when finally we could stop talking about what the ACA might mean for people, and people could start seeing for themselves.
Unfortunately, as we all know, that period of uncertainty has continued a little longer than we expected for many people, because of challenges getting through MNsure, Healthcare.gov, and exchanges around the country.
But there’s a new tool that can help answer those questions for Minnesotans, and your friends and family around the country.
Raise your hand if someone you know has asked a question, posted on facebook, lobbed a tweet, complained or otherwise let you know that they just haven’t been able to figure out what’s out there for them? Raise your other hand if you haven’t been able to figure out what’s out there for you! (And then give your arms a good shake – this waiting and wondering is stressful)
There’s good news.
1) This great new tool takes just a minute to give you a really good idea of what you may qualify for when you complete an application on MNsure. It’s a calculator from Get Covered America and they’ve just updated it with all the great Minnesota-made programs like the rates of private plans on MNsure, MinnesotaCare, and expanded Medical Assistance for kids and pregnant women.… Continue reading »
Check out Get Covered’s calculator to learn your estimated monthly health insurance cost. While not every plan option and tax credit can be estimated here, this will help you be ready to get enrolled.… Continue reading »
Note: The get local help button is not yet updated with local navigators. If you are interested in getting help with enrollment, use this directory, or call us at 651.379.0774!… Continue reading »
AFSCME Council 5, December 11, 2013
Pete Benner, former AFSCME Council 6 Executive Director, explains access, benefits and eligibility for the MNsure health insurance exchange.… Continue reading »
When Minnesotans last fall rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that would have required voters to present photo identification at the polls, it represented a huge victory for liberal groups that had fought to oppose it.
On the front lines of that effort was TakeAction Minnesota, which over the last decade has become a powerful advocate for liberal causes. Since then, the group has played crucial role in several state and local campaigns, including the race for mayor in Minneapolis.
Take Action Minnesota emerged from the 2006 merger of two other groups — Progressive Minnesota and the Minnesota Alliance for Progressive Action.
The group’s supporters are “movement builders” — ready to spring to action during petition drives and elections, said Dan McGrath, executive director of TakeAction Minnesota.
“At any given moment we’re in the streets protesting something,” McGrath said. “We’re a people’s organization. Every day we are knocking on doors, making phone calls, talking to people in the community — people who are often low-income, people who are on the margins, people of color, the elderly, students.”
McGrath said those communities set TakeAction Minnesota’s agenda, which has a lot to do with improving conditions for minorities in Minnesota. With an annual budget of more than $3 million, 31 full-time employees and an email list of more than 40,000 supporters, the group can devote considerable energy to its work.… Continue reading »
AARP
Learn how the Affordable Care Act will work for you and your family.… Continue reading »
The Kaiser Foundation, July 2013
Learn the basics of the Affordable Care Act in one quick video.… Continue reading »
I’ve always believed in the power of stories.
As a teacher of history and literature, I use personal narratives to bring lessons and lost eras home to students in the present. And recent research has shown that stories are uniquely effective at imparting shared values and empathy. But the fight for healthcare reform taught me how stories can transform the world.
When my family moved to Minnesota about three years ago, we lived without health insurance for four months while we applied for MinnesotaCare. I’d saved up for a doctor’s visit to get continuous care for my fibromyalgia and depression, but the doctor I’d picked refused to follow the treatment plan I’d been on for over a decade. We couldn’t afford to “shop” for a good doctor through out-of-pocket visits, and I was forced off all my medications. I became couch- and bed-bound with pain and exhaustion. I couldn’t look for work or explore the city we’d moved to–even taking my sons swimming for an hour was enough to use up all the energy I had for the day.
I truly recovered once our MinnesotaCare coverage started, and I was able to resume life as a worker, a mom, and a member of our new community.… Continue reading »
Robyn J. Skrebes of Minneapolis said she was able to sign up for health insurance in about two hours on Monday using the Web site of the state-run insurance exchange in Minnesota, known as MNsure. Ms. Skrebes, who is 32 and uninsured, said she had selected a policy costing $179 a month, before tax credit subsidies, and also had obtained Medicaid coverage for her 2-year-old daughter, Emma.
“I am thrilled,” Ms. Skrebes said, referring to her policy. “It’s affordable, good coverage. And the Web site of the Minnesota exchange was pretty simple to use, pretty straightforward. The language was really clear.”
The experience described by Ms. Skrebes is in stark contrast to reports of widespread technical problems that have hampered enrollment in the online health insurance marketplace run by the federal government since it opened on Oct. 1. While many people have been frustrated in their efforts to obtain coverage through the federal exchange, which is used by more than 30 states, consumers have had more success signing up for health insurance through many of the state-run exchanges, federal and state officials and outside experts say…
I care about Health Care because I want all families to be stronger, healthier and empowered to stand up for their community. WE are America and these are our values, our lives we must embrace and care about together. Will you join me?… Continue reading »
We believe in a Minnesota where we’re able to care for ourselves and our families. Everyone needs and deserves quality, affordable, accessible health care, no matter where they live. We have a vision for people-centered health care that’s simple, affordable, and universal and includes both mental health care and reproductive care.
The pathway forward is through public health insurance, not the failing private market. In 2019, we’re fighting for bold progress on people-centered health care that moves us closer to MinnesotaCare for All:
To share your story about care or learn more, contact Eveleyn@takeactionminnesota.org. … Continue reading »
For decades, Brad and Heidi Stokes have put health care at the center of every important life decision.
Heidi Stokes, whose lupus was diagnosed when she was a teenager, picked her early career path around jobs that offered medical benefits. Husband Brad developed a rare liver disease in the late 1980s and has since had two liver transplants. Their college-age son, Christian, was diagnosed with diabetes when he was 15 months old.
As small business owners with complex medical needs, the couple have had only one realistic option for insurance coverage: the state’s high-risk pool. But that will change Tuesday with the debut of the MNsure insurance exchange, an online marketplace that gives individuals and small businesses a range of choices while using the power of competition and federal tax breaks to hold down costs.
“The idea that we could go shopping for insurance — and select something for ourselves — is just unbelievable,” Heidi Stokes said. “For the first time, I’ve got some hope for the future.”
I’m a healthy young woman, and to be honest, I never had reason to care much about healthcare until I started interning at TakeAction Minnesota. Little did I know, the Affordable Care Act (Obama’s health care reform law), has already been improving young women’s health while saving them and their families money for over three years. This law is like your secret admirer you either thought was really boring, or didn’t even realize existed.
Let me take you from apathy to infatuation in four bullet points:
Significant changes were made to the state’s insurance program for the working poor during the 2013 legislative session
Jeff Nygaard has been enrolled in MinnesotaCare for nearly two decades. Last year the 59-year-old Minneapolis resident earned about $21,000 through freelance writing, part-time work at an art studio and modeling assignments. He currently pays $47 per month for his state-subsidized health-insurance coverage.
Over the years, Nygaard’s dealt with some significant health scares. A decade ago he suffered a stroke owing to a hole in the wall of his heart. That required surgery to fix the problem.
A few years later his elbow swelled painfully. He was diagnosed with cellulitis and treated with antibiotics. If untreated, the skin infection could have been fatal.
“I really would be up a creek without a paddle if I hadn’t had some kind of coverage,” Nygaard said. “If we didn’t have MinnesotaCare, I actually don’t know what I’d do.”
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The state’s new online health insurance marketplace, MNsure, is banking on community groups and other grass-roots organizations to help people sign up for health plans.
MNsure will pay consumer assistants to help Minnesotans apply for and enroll in coverage. But MNsure has a two-tier payment system that advocates for low-income people call unfair.
MNsure is one of the new state-based marketplaces that are a cornerstone of the federal health care law. Because they are new, and tens of millions of Americans will use them to enroll in health insurance for the first time, the federal health care law requires states to help consumers understand and sign up for coverage.
MNsure will pay these consumer assistance partners $70 for each person enrolled in a commercial health plan. But for people whose income is so low that they cannot afford to pay for health insurance and must rely on Medicaid, the federally sponsored program for the poor, MNsure will pay just $25.
2013 was an incredible legislative session to be part of the movement for universal healthcare in Minnesota.
Many years we find ourselves on the defense, working as hard as we can just to keep the public health care programs we have, forced to choose just one priority in order to win anything, with little or no additional capacity to think about the long term and move forward. This was not that year, but it wasn’t a cake-walk either.
Real people stepped up and stepped forward into the weedy, wonky world of “health insurance exchange” policy and wrestled it into a simple, urgent message: “People At The Center.” Rather than leaving it to “the experts,” Minnesotans called, emailed, and visited legislators and the Dayton administration to make sure that Minnesota’s new exchange, now called MNsure, was built to serve the needs of people who need healthcare, not the industry that profits off selling it. This meant fighting back the top priorities of big insurance companies in order to keep people on the payroll of big insurance off of our MNsure board, and to allow MNsure to negotiate with insurers for the best plans and the best prices.
At the same time, a strong alliance of diverse organizations worked with the Dayton administration and legislature to make sure that federal health care reform would maintain and expand MinnesotaCare into a model program for states around the country.… Continue reading »
It was a big session for health legislation at the Minnesota Capitol.
Lawmakers expanded the Medicaid insurance program in February and met a federal deadline in March to pass legislation for a health insurance exchange.
As the session drew to a close, legislators passed a bill that spells out rules for how the current health insurance market can continue once the exchange gets rolling. And a bill signed by Gov. Mark Dayton on Thursday outlines the future for MinnesotaCare, a state health insurance program for lower-income families.
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