Meeting on Developing a Fair Health Care
System April 2 in Rural Winona
CONTACT: Paul Sobocinski, LSP, 507-430-1509
Kaye Huelskamp, LSP Health Care Task Force, 507-523-2418
3/31/09
WINONA, Minn. — Strategies on how to develop a fair system of affordable health care in rural areas will be the focus of a Land Stewardship Project (LSP) meeting Thursday, April 2, beginning at 7:30 p.m., at the Wilson Fire Hall in rural Winona (one-quarter mile north of the I-90/Highway 43 North interchange; Winona I-90 exit no. 252). For more information, contact Paul Sobocinski with the Land Stewardship Project (LSP) at 507-430-1509. You can also contact Kaye Huelskamp, a resident of Lewiston and a member of LSP’s Health Care Task Force, at 507-523-2418.
This meeting will feature a panel of LSP members discussing how the current health care system does not work for them and why LSP should work for health care reform. Liz Doyle, Public Policy Director with Take Action Minnesota, will give a talk on what it will take to develop affordable health care for everyone.
One focus of the meeting’s discussion will be a recent health care insurance study conducted in seven states, including Minnesota. It found that while 90 percent of the 2,000 farmers and ranchers surveyed said they had some sort of health coverage, nearly a quarter of them reported that the cost of health care was causing them financial problems. The farmers and ranchers reporting financial difficulties spent on average 42 percent of their income on insurance premiums and out-of-pocket health care costs, according to the report, “2007 Health Insurance Survey of Farm and Ranch Operators” (www.rwjf.org/pr/product.jsp?id=34548).
The health care-related problems reported by the farmers and ranchers included using up their savings, being forced to take off-farm employment and delaying investments in their operations, as well as difficulty paying rent, mortgages and other bills.
LSP will also use the April 2 meeting to introduce its new Health Care Task Force.
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