You can get your blood pressure checked and a diabetes screening Tuesday at the state Capitol, in the hallway outside the governor’s office.
It’s a publicity stunt, of sorts, to protest the changes forced onto the General Assistance Medical Care program, affecting thousands of very poor adults. But unlike most protest/photo ops, some helpful medical advice could come of it.
The 10 a.m. “clinic” will be put on by a coalition of hman rights, health practitioner and senior groups “to protest the drastic cuts to the General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC) program.” Organizers say “it is the responsibility of society through its government to entitle and guarantee comprehensive health insurance to all.”
They plan to have three glucometers and 50 test strips for diabetes screening and a couple of blood pressure cuffs at the impromptu clinic. They’re expecting one or two doctors, three nurses and a pharmacist.
They say only four of 17 hospitals are participating in the new GAMC program.
Sponsors of the clinic are: Poor Peoples’ Economic Human Rights Campaign, Welfare Rights Committee, Twin Cities Gray Panthers, Universal Health Care Action Network of MN, Practitioners United MN, North Star Health Collective, Holistic Nursing Services, Somali Women in Minneapolis, West Bank Pharmacy and Schneider Drug.
They say:
Such tragic cuts will result in far greater hospitalizations, emergency room visits, morbidity and mortality. GAMC enrollees and practitioners are welcome to join in solidarity to create a “free clinic zone” to show that sick human beings are not expendable, whether GAMC patients or not, and that we need a system in which nurses don’t have to go on strike in order to protect their patients’ health.
