Rally at Capitol to preserve GAMC

Those opposed to Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s plan to cut state funding for General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC) rallied inside the Capitol building in St. Paul Thursday.
The start of the 2010 legislative session could bring an end to health care coverage for the 28,000 people enrolled in GAMC, a program for low-income adults that do not qualify for federally funded health care programs.
Last month, Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Minnesota Human Services Commissioner Cal Ludeman announced that funding for GAMC will end March 31.
Robert Fischer , 51, of Minneapolis, became enrolled in GAMC seven years ago, after costs for surgery on his foot led him to become bankrupt.
“I used to be a millionaire, and then I had a medical problem,” Fischer said.
After becoming homeless and falling into drug addiction, Fischer said he lost all hope.
“I gave up. I imploded,” he said.
After living on the streets for three years, Fischer said he enrolled in GAMC and found an apartment.
Now considered disabled, he is living off of $203 a month.
“GAMC was the key,” Fischer said. “It’s been big for me.”
Fischer said he is currently looking for work in the health care industry, and plans to be off the program in the near future, but said he owes his success to GAMC.
“I wouldn’t have been able to do what I did without it,” Fischer said.
Fischer said the governor should carefully consider the effect that cutting the program will have on enrollees.
“It’s such an easy thing to black line on paper, but it has huge effects,” Fischer said. “These are human lives you’re dealing with. They’re great people. They have a heart too.”
To be eligible for the program, participants must be between the ages of 21 and 64. Participants must also meet the monthly income limit of less than 75 percent of the federal poverty guidelines with less than $1,000 in assets.
Under the program’s comprehensive coverage plan, members receive benefits that include routine physicals, immunizations, emergency room care, inpatient hospitalization and mental health services at no cost to them. Some services, such as non-emergency visits to the emergency room and prescriptions, require a co-pay.
Community members, hospital representatives, union members and medical students rallied to raise GAMC to the top of the legislative agenda.
Nola Lynch, 58, is an employee of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the largest public employee and health care workers union in the United States.
Lynch said she attended the rally to represent Regions Hospital employees. She expressed her concern for potential job cuts of doctors and nurses when hospitals are burdened with extra costs not covered by GAMC.
Liz Kuoppala , 38, associate director for Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless, was also there to support making GAMC a priority on the legislative agenda.
“There are GAMC recipients from all around the state, and they can see people who care about them in the community, hospitals and unions who also think GAMC needs to be a top priority,” Kuoppala said.
Jacob Feigal is a second year medical student at the University of Minnesota and co-chairman of the University’s Inter-Professional Street Outreach Program (ISTOP). In the program, medical students provide basic health care to the homeless.
Feigal said he opposes the decision to cut the program because he said it gives people access to health care who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford it.
Feigal said ISTOP wants to put pressure on legislators and show that medical professionals don’t support cutting the program.
“Hopefully, it will light a fire,” Feigal said.
Program participants will be transferred to the MinnesotaCare health program when GAMC funding ends April 1.
Counties will pay members’ MinnesotaCare premiums for six months, after which they will have to pay their own premiums to keep their coverage.
However, Feigal said he believes that won’t solve the problem.
“Many of those people can’t pay the premiums,” Feigal said. “It will put that program at risk.”