Protecting Medicaid & Innovation in Minnesota

Posted December 12, 2017

Throughout 2017, TakeAction Minnesota members have organized to defend Medicaid by collecting and sharing stories, mobilizing Minnesotans to vociferously oppose bills that would harm Medicaid.

Congressman Jason Lewis ‘appalled’ by protesters at his door

Posted August 25, 2017

A group of about 20 protesters showed up at U.S. Rep. Jason Lewis’ (R) house in Woodbury on Wednesday. They coursed up his driveway bearing signs, crowded around his front step, and chanted about healthcare loudly enough for his neighbors to hear. Lewis had supported the Republican health care bill, which included deep cuts to Medicaid.

Lewis wasn’t at home, but when he heard about the “invasion” later, he was incensed, calling the protest a “wanton disregard of civility,” and a “dangerous ramping up of rhetoric that already has one of my House colleagues in rehab from a vicious attack.”

Lewis’ office didn’t respond to our calls, but the congressman appears to be refering to U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), who is in rehabilitation after a Bernie Sanders supporter shot him during practice for the Congressional Baseball Game in June.

A video of the protest accompanied Lewis’ post as evidence, though instead of threatening mobsters, protesters are elderly ladies, a senior gentleman in a wheelchair, homecare workers, and a handful of young activists with TakeAction Minnesota. The group led a set of chants for a few minutes, before reading aloud from a letter, which was then propped against Lewis’ door.

Their “dangerous” rhetoric included a short speech by senior citizen Debra Francis: “My PCA would have to juggle even more work to keep up with the cost of living.… Continue reading »

Stigma, Skinny Repeal, and “Charity Case” Health Care

Posted July 28, 2017

By Matt Kramer, Operations Assistant

Growing up as a kid with a disability, I felt both the stigma society places on people with disabilities, and the importance of connecting with people to make change.

 I had “friends,” which I later learned often meant kids the teacher asked to talk to me. Add society stigma and misunderstanding about disabilities, along with meanness of kids at that age, and you have a pretty lonely, isolated childhood. Adults who weren’t directly taking care of me were either afraid of me, or walking on eggshells trying to say the right thing. I remember people praising me lavishly about being brave, and an inspiration. Although flattered at the time, I look back at this and often ask why.

As for services, most did not exist, and those that did were impossible to find. This was long before the days of e-mail or the internet. We had the Yellow Pages. You had to know someone who knew something. Families like mine who had complex medical issues from birth were on their own figuring out how to pay for the gargantuan medical bills.

My parents served on the first Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities. The group analyzes state policy for people with disability, makes recommendations to the governor, and provides research grants to improve the lives of people with disabilities.… Continue reading »

GOP Medicaid Cuts Hit Rural America Hardest, Report Finds

Posted June 8, 2017

By Phil Galewitz June 7, 2017

Rural America carried President Donald Trump to his election night upset last November.

Trump Country it may be, but rural counties and small towns also make up Medicaid Country — those parts of the nation whose low-income children and families are most dependent on the federal-state health insurance program, according to a report released Wednesday.

Medicaid’s enrollment has swollen to more than 72 million in recent years, and the ranks of uninsured Americans has fallen to 9 percent in 2015 from 13 percent in 2013. That’s largely due to the Affordable Care Act, which allowed states to expand Medicaid eligibility with federal funds. Thirty-one states plus the District of Columbia did so.

Those gains may be in jeopardy under a GOP- and White House-backed health care measure called the American Health Care Act that would replace major parts of the ACA — known as Obamacare — and dramatically cut federal funding for Medicaid. The House passed the bill in May.

“There is no doubt that children and families in small towns would be disproportionately harmed by cuts to Medicaid,” said Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families.

According to the center’s new report, Medicaid covered 45 percent of children and 16 percent of adults in small towns and rural areas in 2015.… Continue reading »