| Franken's staff fields Princeton's concerns |
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By Joel Stottrup Two staff workers from the office of Minnesota’s newly-seated U.S. Senator Al Franken fielded a lot of health care-funding requests last Thursday. The office staff — Charlie Poster and his assistant Jesse Held — heard from about a half-dozen people. The meeting took place in Princeton City Hall, one of many stops for Poster and Held around the state. Franken took office just over three weeks ago after a hotly-contested senate race outcome with opponent Norm Coleman. Poster noted that a Franken field office will be set up soon in the Twin Cities and eventually some offices will be opened elsewhere in the state. The series of Franken statewide citizen input meetings started July 14 and ended July 29. Giving input in Princeton were Darlene Walburg, Paula Schmoyer, Kim Evenson, Eileen Bohn, Pat Braun, Duane Anderson and Jeff Larson. Larson handed his requests to Poster in handwritten form. Larson is chief organizational officer at Rum River Health Services (RRHS) and has worked for years at RRHS in a chemical dependency counseling program. Also attending were state Sen. Lisa Fobbe and Jeff Lundgren. Lundgren also works for RRHS. Walburg, who directs the Elim Oasis Adult Daycare program, said she wished that Medicare would fund adult daycares. She noted that it funds nursing homes and home health care programs. Evenson, who has an adult foster care home that gives 24-hour care to its residents, made a nearly similar request as Walburg. There needs to be more Medicare funding to help adult foster care homes, Evenson said. “We can charge through Medicare but not as much as the nursing homes,” she added. Schmoyer talked about many products such as some cleaners that do not have a list of ingredients. More information needs to be on labels about various chemical products, Schmoyer told Franken’s staff. “It’s astonishing to me all the stuff that is on the market and there are no regulations on them,” she said. Anderson, a teacher at Princeton High School, said he is worried about how the cost of health care will affect he and other Princeton teachers as they seek a pay raise. It appears that the health care premium they pay may go up 15 percent, he told Poster. Access to and affordability of health care are the big issues being heard so much across the state now, Poster responded. Sen. Fobbe, DFL – Princeton, pointed out that Medicare reimbursement rates for Minnesota are below some other states. Also, if the state could even get five percent of what it is entitled to from the federal government for special education, it could pay for teachers’ health care costs, Fobbe added. She also mentioned that people without insurance can be billed higher than those with insurance for the same services. Braun is area supervisor in the state and federally-funded foster grandparents program. Braun told Poster that the Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s Serve America Act is detrimental to Senior CORPS. The program is now state run and the Kennedy Act would have it be run by a commission which would be appointed by the governor, Braun said. That would make it political, which it is not now under the current setup, she said. She also noted the new federal mandates to increase the hourly wage from $2.65 to $3 for the foster grandparent and senior companion program workers. The idea of the pay raise is good but the problem is the legislation does not provide the money to fund the increase, she said. Comments (0)
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