Health care facilities will close and Minnesotans will lose access to medical care as a result of the budget resolution/reconciliation bill passed by Congress.
The resulting spending bill is likely to include cuts to Medicaid. Currently, 29 percent or 198,121 residents of Minnesota’s Eighth Congressional District receive Medicaid for their health care, totaling more than $1.8 billion in federal dollars, according to the Minnesota Department of Human Services. The state matches the federal money for Medicaid to provide health care to children, the disabled, and the elderly. Rural health care in America is already hanging on by a thread due to many factors including reimbursement rates from Medicaid and Medicare. If this bill becomes law, we will see many of our rural hospitals closing due to financial insolvency. The loss of our community hospitals will have disastrous consequences for everyone in rural Minnesota.  
I work on an inpatient mental health unit with the majority of our patients receiving their healthcare from Medicaid. In Minnesota, patients already suffer due to the shortage of available acute mental health beds.  The sad fact is, without Medicaid funding, the unit I work on will most likely close.  The demand for inpatient mental health care will then dramatically increase as patients will not be able to afford outpatient care. If this happens, we will see even more mental health patients boarding in emergency rooms around the state. More mentally ill patients will end up in our jails and prisons as well. These are the impacts of cutting Medicaid in just one area of nursing. Nursing homes and community health clinics will also lose funding and close. 
The day the House budget resolution bill passed, I traveled with other northeastern Minnesota nurses to St. Paul to voice these concerns with state Reps. Roger Skraba, Natalie Zeleznikar, Cal Warwas and Spencer Igo. We also met with Sens. Grant Hauschild and Robert Farnsworth. Reps. Skraba and Zeleznikar and Sen. Farnsworth told us not to worry about the federal reconciliation bill, because it was not going to pass. They said that it would be political suicide to dramatically cut Medicaid.  Rep. Igo was not able to meet with us for an unknown reason. Rep. Warwas shared our concern about Medicaid and agreed to speak to U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber, who ultimately voted for this bill. He also planned to talk to Rep. Stauber about DOGE withholding federal grant money from Scenic Rivers Hospital in Cook, which was struggling to stay open without these funds. 
Pete Stauber voting for this bill is a betrayal of the rural Minnesotans who voted for him to be their voice in Congress. He voted for it, not because it is good for Minnesotans, but because of fear. The Republican Party under Trump no longer values our republic or our constitution — it is a party of fear.  This is not how political discourse in a democracy is supposed to work.  
How we treat the most vulnerable among us is the true judge of our morality and humanity. Allowing our current federal government to cut health care for the most vulnerable Americans in order to pass permanent tax cuts for the wealthy is blatantly wrong. And the fact that many of our elected officials claim to be Christian makes their actions horrific heresy — stealing from the poor to give even more to the rich.
Wayne Garrett, RN
Tracy Garrett, RN
Angora