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ILCM Participates in Health Care Financing Task Force

Posted on May 10 2016

Pictured (left to right) is John Keller, Senator John Marty, Monica Hurtado (Voices for Racial Justice), Maureen O’Connell (Health Access), Sarah Greenfield (Take Action), Jonathon Watson (MN Association of Community Health Centers), Emilia Avalos (Navigate MN) and her daughter, Miranda

Beginning in the fall and continuing through January of 2016, ILCM, along with Take Action Minnesota, Health Access MN, Voices for Racial Justice, SEIU Healthcare, Navigate MN, ISAIAH, and the Safety Net Coalition attended dozens of meetings and invested at least 300 collective hours into the newly created Minnesota Health Care Financing Task Force. The Task Force identified barriers to health care equity as well as solutions to address them. The final package of recommendations to Governor Dayton and the legislature are available here. The Governor’s 29 member Task Force, including health care industry and academic experts, elected and appointed officials, and advocates from labor and community groups, overwhelmingly approved our top health care recommendation to create a new coverage eligibility program to provide access to health insurance to everyone in the state, regardless of immigration status.

The recommendation (number five in the report) aims to provide access to health care coverage for uninsured, low-income individuals who do not have access to Medical assistance, Qualified Health Plans, and MinnesotaCare because of immigration status. It predominantly includes undocumented persons, but also those with lawful status such as DACA (their status precludes them from coverage by state/federal health insurance regulations). By creating a new coverage program, the state will also reduce the use of emergency room visits by the uninsured, using health care dollars more efficiently by improving access to routine and preventative care. Reducing health care disparities in Minnesota requires the state to provide affordable coverage to undocumented immigrants: about 90,000 undocumented immigrants reside in Minnesota, and about one-third have at least one U.S.-born child.

In testimony, community members shared their powerful stories, showing the importance of passing this recommendation. One community member shared his story of being a small business owner who became ill and needed an operation. He could not afford the necessary surgery both due to his limited economic means and not qualifying for health care due to his immigration status. His pain does not allow him to work as hard as he used to, or provide for his family in the same way. His small business had to let employees go—impacting more families. Allowing patients like this father, access to health care would greatly improve their ability to provide for themselves, their families, and their employees.

The Task Force’s immigrant coverage recommendation moved into legislation and had its first successful hearings in the Senate. Unfortunately, it was not given a hearing in the House. ILCM is grateful to Navigate MN’s Executive Director, Emilia Avalos, for providing some of the most powerful testimony of the session to educate and persuade senators about the importance of this equity-creating health initiative. ILCM and many of our partners are committed to continued advocacy for health care equity.