Minn. To Cover Patients Hit By Pawlenty Budget Cut

November 6, 2009| Posted in In the News

Nov 6, 2009 6:15 pm US/Central
MARTIGA LOHN, Associated Press Writer

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) The Minnesota Department of Human Services outlined a plan Friday to maintain health insurance for more than 30,000 low-income adults whose coverage runs out March 1, by moving them from one state program into another.

Commissioner Cal Ludeman said the agency will automatically transfer 28,000 people from the General Assistance Medical Care program into MinnesotaCare, a bigger subsidized plan for the working poor. Another 8,000 GAMC enrollees already are switching or dropping coverage.
The plan aims to catch those who otherwise would have become uninsured after Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty eliminated nearly $400 million in funding for GAMC as part of a decit  earlier this year. The future of the program’s patients will be one of the top issues in next year’s legislative session, starting in February.

“I was not going to simply be left in a position of having no coverage for these people for any period of time,” Ludeman said.

Democrats said it would be diffcult for the poorest, most vulnerable residents to handle a program that requires premiums and paperwork to stay enrolled. GAMC covers 36,000 very low-income adults — some homeless, others with incomes as low as a couple thousand dollars a year. MinnesotaCare is insurance for 125,000 working poor who pay monthly premiums on a sliding scale.

“Within six months, tens of thousands more Minnesotans will be uninsured at great cost to all of us,” said Rep. Paul Thissen, one of a dozen Democrats running for governor.

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