Health care for undocumented immigrants is tiny part of budget, huge talking point

Understanding how Minnesota subsidizes wellness care for several of its residents is super hard to wrap my head around Even lawmakers who have worked on wellbeing care budgets for decades admit this This is an extremely complicated area and an extremely sensitive area reported Jim Abeler R-Anoka on the Senate floor Wednesday as the legislative chamber debated a bill to fund the Department of Human Services DHS It is an agonizing process But one element of DHS spending is not very complicated Money Minnesota gives to provide undocumented immigrants wellness care is an insignificant part of the state s spending crunch The Senate floor debate on Wednesday gave a different impression A handful of senators insinuated that subsidizing the soundness care of undocumented immigrants is leading to nursing homes in peril and county governments forced to consider property tax hikes Gov Tim Walz and DFLers have decided that they would rather cut nursing homes and services for families with disabilities than to look at reprioritizing the dollars that are used to subsidize illegal immigration reported Jordan Rasmusson R-Fergus Falls and the ranking member of the Senate Human Services Committee Sen Torrey Westrom R-Alexandria commented that Gov Walz and the formerly DFL-controlled Legislature ran through money including to fund fitness care for illegal immigrants to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars that the taxpayers here in Minnesota are now paying VIDEO Westrom s floor speech So Westrom added Our seniors in the nursing homes receive less funding so we can continue to fund illegal immigrants strength care What does physical condition care for undocumented immigrants cost Minnesota What Rasmusson and Westrom are alluding to is a bill Gov Walz signed in when the DFL enjoyed sole control of the House and Senate The measure made undocumented immigrants eligible for MinnesotaCare a state campaign separate from Medicaid that helps subsidize medical costs for people whose income is or below the federal poverty level Related After losing a family member to cancer Waite Park advocate hopes new MinnesotaCare access for undocumented residents will save lives The campaign went into effect January st of this year As of April according to an email DHS sent to the Republican legislative caucus which was then shared with reporters the state has spent million to reimburse the physical condition care suggests of activity enrollees who were undocumented Prorated over a year that would come to million DHS s annual budget for fiscal year is projected to be billion billion of which comes from the federal leadership GOP State Sen Jordan Rasmusson R-Fergus Falls speaks at a news conference on April about MinnesotaCare for undocumented immigrants Credit Minnesota Senate As Republicans have pointed out MinnesotaCare patients unlike Medicaid recipients are not eligible for federal monies So in the spirit of generosity let s take that million and double it to million under the assumption that a flood of undocumented immigrants will sign up for MinnesotaCare in the coming months and file pricey suggests Then let s divide that million into just the billion state-financed part of the DHS budget That would put the total cost of strength care for undocumented immigrants at of the DHS budget Not of the total DHS budget Not of the budget Less than ths of department outlays What is the real reason DHS necessities to make budget cuts then The short answer along with anticipated federal cuts is long-term care for Medicaid recipients Since the state of Minnesota has gotten federal exemptions to care for chronically ill patients in smaller region settings or their own homes This is called a long-term care waiver and it has gone up roughly over several years according to the governor s budget presentation A Human Services spending bill that cleared the House on Monday would cut million from the progress of long-term care waivers over the next two years The Senate bill which cuts less overall than the House version trims roughly million from residential long-term care waivers The Senate package also includes million in total cuts for nursing facility payment system changes read nursing homes While the bills are different each recognizes daily care for the elderly and disabled as an essential function of executive that nonetheless requirements to be managed more efficiently So is the immigrant hullabaloo just a fleeting distraction in budget talks It s not clear The House split evenly between Democrats and Republicans easily passed their Human Services budget by a - vote During two-hours of chamber debate and discussion there was little about MinnesotaCare helping undocumented immigrants But the Senate Human Services bill was passed on a - vote where every DFLer voted yes and each Republican save Abeler announced no The bills now have to be reconciled in a conference committee where maybe House Republicans will join their Senate colleagues demand to end MinnesotaCare for undocumented immigrants Meanwhile Walz is holding daily closed door meetings with legislative leaders to discuss the budget Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy DFL-St Paul has mentioned she would not be willing to forgo MinnesotaCare for undocumented immigrants as part of a budget compromise It will cost the system more money and make people less healthy Murphy commented in an interview alluding to crisis rooms not turning someone down for their immigration status The Legislature has until May to finalize its budget Hold on to your hats The post Robustness care for undocumented immigrants is tiny part of budget huge talking point appeared first on MinnPost