Health Care for the Homeless: Saving Lives & Building Community

The National Health Care for the Homeless Council has designated March 21 - 26 as Health Care for the Homeless week. This year’s theme is “Saving Lives. Building Community.”

It’s a good time to rejuvenate ourselves after having just received a double-whammy of proposed massive budget cuts to health care programs at both the state and federal level. And, we also are still reeling from thousands being kicked off state health care programs in 2003, hospitals struggling to stay open with the increasing costs of uncompensated care, and cash-strapped programs trying to fill in the gaps as very low-income people search desperately for money for new and increased co-pays.

We know that providing accessible health care reduces homelessness and that local communities must have the resources and flexibility to develop housing and services that will keep people healthy. We know that people experiencing homelessness have all the same health problems as people in homes, but at rates three to six times greater. We know they suffer disproportionately high rates of premature and preventable death.

Last December, at the 20th Annual Memorial Service for people who died while homeless in the state, Laura Kadwell, Minnesota’s director for ending long-term homelessness, said:

“At this time of year, we acknowledge the darkness and look toward the light. We see the darkness not only of the skies as the days grow ever shorter but of our souls. What does it say about us that – in the richest country of the world – people, some of them children, do not even have a place to die? Did we not care enough? Did we not give enough? Did we not reach out? And why did we not do these things? And what does this say about our community? …The bell that tolls for each of the dead here tonight tolls for each of us. Our humanity is diminished both by their deaths and by how they were cast aside in life.”

About a month after Director Kadwell spoke those words on behalf of his administration, Governor Pawlenty released his budget proposal to cut 40,000 working adults from MinnesotaCare, the state’s subsidized health insurance plan for workers, which he referred to as “welfare health care” and blamed for the shortfall in the state’s general fund.

However, MinnesotaCare spending comes from a separate pot of money, the Health Care Access Fund, which is a combination of a special tax paid by health care providers, federal dollars, and premiums paid by people enrolled in the program. It didn’t contribute one dime to the budget shortfall, and his proposal does nothing to solve the larger health care problem.

Instead, increasing the number of uninsured Minnesotans will drive up health care costs for everyone while hurtling uninsured people into tremendous debt that could well force them into homelessness.

The President’s budget, released in February, which would drastically cut housing, community development, and services dollars, would also cut $60 billion over ten years in health care funding for children, pregnant women, the elderly, and people with disabilities; it would shift enormous financial burdens to already cash-strapped states; it would raise health care costs for hundreds of thousands of veterans by imposing new co-pays and user fees.

Elected officials must learn that abandoning people who are poor is immoral, inhumane, and bad policy. The proposed budget cuts are not merely numbers; they might well be the lives of our neighbors.

Health care funding is complex - it’s tough enough for those of us who are fortunate to have health care coverage to navigate the system for ourselves - and it’s easy to become too overwhelmed to make the necessary phone calls to elected officials. It’s tempting to leave this one fight for others while we’re engaged on so many other fronts. This week it is good to remember that if we do not raise our voices, decisions will be made that are informed only by the voices of those with whom we most strongly disagree.

Please take a minute today to call the Governor at (651) 296-3391 or (800) 657-3717 and the President at (202) 456-1414 and tell them why cutting health care funding is a bad idea.

For more information about National Health Care for the Homeless Week visit www.nhchc.org. You can also get talking points for your phone calls by contacting Liz Kuoppala.