April 10, 2002
Directory of Organizations — Page 8
Inside ■ Bioethics — p. 3 ■ Buck Humphrey — p. 3 ■ Anita Silvers’ Lecture — p. 6
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“I am what I am, so take me as I am!”
—J. W. von Goethe
Non-profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Mpls. MN Permit No. 4766
Volume 13, Number 4
SOURCES
RESOURCES
April 10, 2002
LEGISLATIVE WATCH MENTAL HEALTH UPDATE by Sue Abderholden
T
he House and Senate, which worked so quickly on round one of the budget cuts, have come to an impasse as they try to complete round two. Their self-imposed deadline of completing their work by Easter was missed.
Redistricting And Beyond by Joel Ulland
I
f you have been reading the news in the past month, you have been hearing a term that comes around once every ten years: redistricting. Many politicians believe that their political fortunes can be won or lost based on where the lines of their district begin and end. But if you’re not a politician, lobbyist, or someone who closely follows politics, why should you care about new lines on a map? The reason is simple. The new lines on the redistricting map mean there could be a major shift in who controls the power at the State Capitol and who is setting disability policy for years to come. Because of the new map, your current legislator—prior to redistricting—may not even be on the ballot this November. Instead, you might be represented by another legislator who used to serve in a neighboring district. Find out what your new legislative district looks like and who may be representing you next year. Other Potential Changes in the Legislature There are 17 state House
districts that don’t have an incumbent running and nine state Senate districts without an incumbent. This means there could be up to 26 new legislators at the Capitol next year. There could be even more new representatives and senators based on the retirement of current legislators and, of course, if an incumbent loses the election in November. No matter how many new legislators are in the halls of the Capitol next spring, the vast majority of them will have little or no expertise on disability issues. These newly elected officials will need to be educated about the wide variety of issues that people with disabilities face on a daily basis. Now is the Time to Act Why wait until after the election to start discussing disability issues? Many of these candidates will be door-knocking from now until the election and may visit you at your home. Take the opportunity to educate candidates about disability issues and what the government does—and does not
do—for you. Many legislators have a general rule: if they hear from five of their constituents about a single issue, they pay attention and often see what they can do on that issue. If many people with disabilities start talking to candidates and current legislators about important disability issues, imagine the impact we can have! Whether or not you are affected by redistricting or other changes detailed above, get involved in the election process in whatever way you can. Most importantly, please vote at the primary election in September and the general election in November. If you are unsure of what legislative district you are in, contact the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Election Division and they will be able to tell you. The phone number is 651-215-1440. ■ Joel Ulland is the Public Policy Manager for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, MN Chapter.
For mental health advocates, such as The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill in Minnesota (NAMI-MN), the first round was a disaster. The Children’s Mental Health collaboratives lost 100% of their wraparound dollars— and dollars for new collaboratives for the next fiscal year. This means that the approximately 4200 children (and their families) that received services under this program last year will be left without adequate family supports. The Regional Treatment Centers (RTCs) also saw their budgets cut by $8 million, which will result in about 700 people being denied services. In round two, the Senate restored the wraparound dollars, and $5 million to the RTCs. They also excluded funds for state-operated services for the Department of Corrections and the Department of Human Services from contract reductions— and excluded employees at state correctional facilities and state-operated services from the hiring freeze. The Senate is also requiring prepaid health plans to pass on the increase they received last year to mental health service providers and made one-time funding shifts for Mental Health Grants, Community Support Grants, and Group Residential Housing grants. These funds will be delayed by about six months. The only concern is if counties will pass on that delay to the nonprofits pro-
viding these services. Most of the nonprofits do not have reserves to absorb the delay in funding. The House cut $2 million by eliminating the Commissioner positions in the 27 state departments and creating 8 secretarial positions instead. $20 million in general cuts were made including implementing a state hiring freeze and a moratorium on consultant contracts. $61.6 million dollars were cut from the Health and Human Services budget. To meet this target, the House greatly restricted General Assistance (GA) to six months every two years and Emergency General Assistance to once every eighteen months, which saves $696,000. General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC) was consolidated into MN Care for a savings of $37.3 million. Additionally, they shifted budget reserve money from the state-operated services accounts to the general fund saving $7.75 million. NAMI and other mental health and poverty advocates are very concerned about the cuts to GAMC since 34% of people on this program have a mental illness and 50% are mentally ill and/or chemically dependent. The department estimates that 7,000 people will be without insurance. People who are leaving an RTC or are newly diagnosed and have lost a job tend to go on GAMC. They are usually waiting to go on another program like SSI/ SSDI and MA. Some of the differences between GAMC and Minnesota Care are that MN Care has premiums ($4) and prescription co-payments ($7), and you must be without insurance for four months before you are eligible. GAMC is an entitlement but MN Care is not.
This means that when funding is low, they can restrict MN Care and the first people kicked off will be single adults with no dependents. New Bills Special education advocates are working on language that would essentially require education programs in care and treatment facilities to conform to state and federal education laws (including special education). Students must begin receiving educational services within three days of entering a facility. They also must have access to the same hours of educational instruction as other students living in the district unless their treatment plans preclude that. This was adopted onto the Children Families and Learning (CFL) bill in the Senate policy and finance committees. Action on the CFL bill in the House was not completed, and we don’t know what the House is going to do. The language is also included in a bill authored by Senator Linda Berglin. The Bonding Bill contains funding for the 218 supportive housing beds on the Minneapolis VA campus and the 125 beds at the St. Cloud VA campus. Half of the beds are to be used by veterans. Also, HF 97 (Greiling)/ Chapter 221 was passed and signed into law. It would change the language in statute to people first language when referring to people with mental illness. A Timely Case NAMI-MN joins the Mental Health and Somali communities in mourning the death of Abu Kassim Jeilani. This Legislative - cont. on p. 6