My Point of View by Jennifer Vogt-Erickson

We have two big health care dramas unfolding that will affect our community deeply.

One is the health care bill that a small group of U.S. senators drafted in secret and are planning to push through with as little public scrutiny as possible, because they knew it wouldn’t withstand an open process and regular order.

The second is that Mayo Clinic Health System recently announced plans to shift the Albert Lea medical facility away from being a traditional full service hospital.

Neither of these plans will be friendly to our rural community.

The intensive care unit of our hospital is slated to close first in October, followed by inpatient surgeries and baby deliveries in the next couple years. Even though we have over 17,000 people in Albert Lea, my children may be among the last generation born here. Three weeks ago I would have thought the idea that Albert Lea would no longer appear on birth certificates was ludicrous.

When I read Don Sorenson’s letter to the editor “Hospital decision is a blow to Albert Lea,” I agreed with him for probably the first time ever. I don’t have an immediate fix, but I have a longer term solution — don’t vote for politicians who support cuts to Medicaid funding and rural hospitals. Politicians who argue for “market-based solutions” and “keeping government out of healthcare” are driving decisions like the one MCHS made.

Republican voters have made a grim bargain. In exchange for anti-abortion, anti-gun control, anti-gay marriage and anti-immigrant legislation, they accept austerity measures that the Republican donor class supports. While the donor class stands to gain enormous windfalls from tax cuts in the Senate’s health care legislation, the consequences for the rest of us include losing hospitals and other health services in smaller communities.

Look around you. Not only is our hospital scheduled to close, but we also have a lot more people who are at risk of losing health coverage than are going to gain from tax cuts. That’s a lose-lose.

Maybe voters will wake up to the policies and outcomes they are choosing. I hope so, because we can expect more of the same until enough rural populations across the country stop voting for Republicans who support these measures virtually in lock-step (except for the ones like Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Rand Paul, who don’t think the cuts go deep enough).

To keep a hospital like Albert Lea’s open requires acceptance of more social spending for the greater good. Although MCHS is non-profit, closing the Albert Lea hospital is a cost-saving, bottom-line decision. To fight back against that, one has to be willing to criticize capitalist principles and say to administrators, “Our community is best served by a full-service hospital. Fight for us.” And then we have to have our hospital’s back in the voting booth every time.

The American Hospital Association is fighting for us. In a statement on June 22, it urged the Senate to “go back to the drawing board.”

Here’s the rub: the way Republicans characterized the process for passing Obamacare — secretive, behind closed doors, without the opposing party’s input — is exactly how they are actually doing it now. Senator Franken, who sits on the Senate Health Committee, didn’t get a chance to offer an amendment that might help our rural hospitals and patients. It never came before his committee, and it didn’t get a single hearing in the finance committee either.

This is how the Senate initially passed Obamacare back in 2009 — after weeks of public hearings in both the health and finance committees, in which dozens of amendments were offered and considered, the full Senate debated the health care bill for 25 straight days — for 160 hours — before passing it. Although they were not supportive of the legislation, Republicans were fully able to participate in the process, and many of their amendments became part of the final bill.

Which of these processes sounds secretive? The truth is that Republicans haven’t been leveling with us.

Yes, Albert Lea, we need our hospital. It’s part of our community identity and our economic strength. It’s the birthplace of many of our most precious dreams, our children. We don’t have much chance of keeping it unless we rally hard.

We must also take a strong stance against the Republican’s unsparing American Health Care Act, because it would hurt the economic stability of our families and put further stress on whatever we have left for health care here.

In the future, please vote for candidates who support expanding healthcare coverage — including Medicaid — and sustaining rural hospitals. Beware of grim bargains.

Jennifer Vogt-Erickson is a member of the Freeborn County DFL Party.