<http://www.workdayminnesota.org/view_article.php?print=y&id=10f44e66de4041d9fd99ac6c99452de9>
Some MinnesotaCare enrollees face life-and-death situation
By Michael Kuchta, St. Paul Union Advocate editor — April 14, 2005
MINNEAPOLIS — "If I croak, it's going to be right in the doorway of Tim Pawlenty's office," Lona DeCarlo says.
DeCarlo, of Oakdale, is one of the 47,000 people likely to lose eligibility for MinnesotaCare under the governor's budget proposal. She was among those who spoke Wednesday at Hennepin County Medical Center highlighting the personal impacts of losing MinnesotaCare.
The simple truth, DeCarlo says, is that without insurance, she'll no longer be able to pay for her medications – which cost $5,600 a year – or for the check-ups with three different specialists.
DeCarlo has been on MinnesotaCare for 10 years – and paid a premium every month, she points out. She has survived a bout with cancer and 13 surgeries related to Crohn's disease, a chronic intestinal ailment. "After the first 12, I jumped out of bed and went back to work," DeCarlo says. "After the last one, I'm no longer able to work, because weakness and fatigue are part of the progression of this disease."
DeCarlo worked as a bartender for 33 years. "I've worked really nice places, I've worked scummy dives," she says. "You go into the food and beverage business knowing ahead of time there are no benefits. If you don't work, you don't get paid. If you get sick, you take care of yourself."
If she loses MinnesotaCare, however, "there are no options," she said. "I'm going up to the governor's office and I'm going to die right on the floor outside his office. He'll have to acknowledge, at least one time, that this is his doing, because I couldn't get my medications."
Stephen Philion Assistant Professor, Dept. of Sociology St. Olaf College http://www.stolaf.edu/depts/sociology/People/faculty-staff/steve.html