‘I literally cried.’ Why some DFL lawmakers say they won’t support budget compromise that phases out MinnesotaCare for undocumented adults

A group of DFL lawmakers protested Thursday s budget deal announcement in dramatic fashion They pounded at the closed door of the governor s reception room midway through an otherwise triumphant press conference Their beef MinnesotaCare being phased out for undocumented immigrant adults Following several instances of loud thumping coming from the door that interrupted Gov Tim Walz and other speakers a safeguard guard stood at the ornate wooden double doors which remained closed Soon after chants of You ve sold out Don t kill immigrants and Don t kill our neighbors could be heard through the heavy wood that separated the executive office reception room from the governor s office lobby DFL lawmakers pounded on the door of the Governor s Reception Room during the budget press conference in protest of leadership s compromise on stripping adult undocumented immigrants from state robustness care One Minnesota right they chanted kare pic twitter com VhkTEGOZdI Danny Spewak DannySpewak May The compromise budget hammered out by Walz and legislative leadership would stop providing access to MinnesotaCare the state s subsidized robustness insurance available to low-income residents to undocumented immigrant adults at the end of the year The compromise would continue to provide robustness insurance for children who are undocumented The move was seen as a success for Republicans who hold shared power with the DFL over the Minnesota House and had argued the effort s costs would spiral Related Vitality care for immigrants is a tiny part of the budget huge talking point Up to that point in the press conference Walz joined by House Speaker Lisa Demuth R-Cold Spring House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman DFL-Brooklyn Park and Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy DFL-St Paul had touted their success in eking out a budget compromise with only days left in the legislative session The leaders celebrated the idea that even if national politicians were mired in party-line standoffs Minnesota could and would get a budget passed in a bipartisan fashion a must considering the House tie and the DFL s one-vote majority in the state Senate But of program a bipartisan budget requires compromises and each leader will have to sell those compromises to their caucuses As the scene Thursday established chosen compromises will be harder for legislators to digest than others As the chants continued Walz addressed the elephant in the room or rather right outside of it The audible anger of his own party members manifested we still have a lot of work to do Walz advised the assembled journalists At a separate press conference about an hour and a half later held by the People of Color and Indigenous Caucus and other DFL legislators the chants turned into speeches decrying the proposed budget that they stated would lead to people being kicked off of dialysis losing cancer healing and eventually dying for lack of care Although we protected the children which is a very noble thing to do those children will lose moms dads grandfathers aunts uncles siblings Rep Cedrick Frazier DFL-New Hope mentioned Of the roughly undocumented immigrants that the Department of Human Services says are on MinnesotaCare about are adults and are children the legislators mentioned Legislators and activists also commented there was no financial incentive to kick undocumented immigrants off of MinnesotaCare since these same individuals would now be a further burden on taxpayers by turning to costly urgency rooms in times of dilemma instead of accessing affordable preventative care with insurance Minnesota is one of about a dozen states that use state funds to provide robustness insurance to low-income residents regardless of immigration status according to the Kaiser Family Foundation The other states are California Connecticut Illinois Maine Massachusetts New Jersey New York Oregon Rhode Island Utah Vermont and Washington as well as the District of Columbia A number of other states provide insurance for children but not for adults as shown in this map from the National Immigration Law Center However the reality of budget constraints and changing residents opinion has of late led Gov Gavin Newsom of California to reverse his long-held position that soundness care should be available to all state residents regardless of immigration status And just this week Republicans in Congress targeted states like Minnesota in their proposed Medicaid budget Related GOP s Medicaid overhaul would punish Minnesota for providing physical condition care to undocumented immigrants If the budget compromise passes as proposed Minnesota will head in that direction But as of now its passage remains uncertain The vociferous opposition to the MinnesotaCare compromise puts the future of the budget deal in peril When urged if all of the representatives and senators on the stage would vote against the budget Frazier explained I think we ve been clear at this point that it means that we re not going to vote yes on this provision Losing the votes of the DFL representatives and senators in the POCI Caucus as well as any allied legislators would mean leaders would need to lean on Republicans for aid to get the budget over the finish line The compromise around undocumented immigrants was crucial to getting Republican buy-in for the budget so to turn back now seems untenable for legislative leadership Related After losing family member to cancer advocate hopes new MinnesotaCare for immigrants saves lives For various though even the idea of kicking undocumented immigrants off of MinnesotaCare is antithetical to why they believe they were elected It remains unclear what lengths this caucus and its supporters will go to to protect those they consider the the majority vulnerable Minnesotans but it is clearly an emotional issue for numerous Rep Samakab Hussein DFL-St Paul described a feeling of betrayal by party leaders He disclosed he has gotten hundreds of phone calls from undocumented constituents who were already concerned about their legal status and medical care options prior to the budget s release When they published this budget I literally cried he commented The post I literally cried Why certain DFL lawmakers say they won t promotion budget compromise that phases out MinnesotaCare for undocumented adults appeared first on MinnPost