Like Sarah Palin, Tim Pawlenty is a Republican governor with Presidential aspirations who had an opinion column appear in a major national newspaper. Unlike what is suspected of Sarah Palin, he probably did write the thing all by himself. However, that doesn’t mean it still wasn’t full of horsepucky. He talks about how wonderful Minnesota’s health care systems are — but doesn’t mention the slashing cuts he’s made to them. For that, you have to go to sites like MN2020, where Elizabeth Rich writes the following:

Here’s a look at a few key points that demonstrate the slippery slope Pawlenty has created: 

Ending GAMC by March 2010 + Reworking MnCare = Those without trying to do without

You’ve done everything right, pulled yourself out of a pretty scary financial hole, and have started easing off General Assistance Medical Care.  It will take a few more steps to be able to qualify for MinnesotaCare, the state’s low-income health insurance.  In the meantime, there’s transitional MnCare.  Except that it will take another year.  And within that year, GAMC will be gone, a month earlier than you expected.  So you have to hustle to move to transitional MnCare, along with everyone else that had GAMC. It gets a little more complicated than that, but the basic idea is there’s little hope for covering people trying to move out of poverty.

General and Emergency Assistance cuts + Dietary spending cuts + Reduced access to specialists = More people lining up at the least cost effective option, emergency rooms

The poorest of the poor are getting a particularly bad hand these days.  Not only do they no longer have dental care, they have less access to specialists in the ER, less help to pay for it and less help paying for preventative methods.

We should just put our disenfranchised population on a bus to Wisconsin. With our neighbor to the east actually funding more health care initiatives and owing us money, it’s the least the Badger State can do. Hey Wisconsin! Think of it as interest on the money we’re asking for immediately!

Major cuts to nursing care = Grandma is on her own

Not everyone in Minnesota cares about our elderly. How do I know that? Let’s look at the unallotment proposals. Less money for residential homes, nursing facilities, and continuing care means less room for our elders.  So they’ll have to live at home.  Except we’ve already reduced Personal Care Attendants’ hours to 350 a month, about 11.5 hours a day.  That’s waaaay too much help for the elderly, don’t you think? Let’s reduce it to 9 hours a day, about 275 a month.  If grandma wants to get sick, she better do it between 9 and 6. 

Slashes to Mental Health Grants + Restructured State Operated Services (SOS) + Reduce MnDHO Rates = Those most in need of help better find someone else

The disabled population of Minnesota better prepare itself because the state is now going to cutout the rate adjustment for where people live, the services that are provided, and the people who help them live productive lives.  Perhaps every disabled individual can find an elderly person to live with and combine what meager services they have left.

Cap Chemical Dependency Payment Rates + Restructure State Operated Services = People struggling with addictions needing to travel farther for less services

When people are upset, not all of them turn to a strict regimen of yoga and meditation. Many turn to more sinister substances.  So, we should definitely cut funds to some counties running chemical dependency programs and cap the rate for the cost of treatment.  Oh, and take many of the community programs out and condense them into more spread out areas around the state. Because everyone wants people struggling with drug dependency to have to work harder with less to be more productive citizens, right? No? Well, too bad. 

All of the above = The "Minnesota Miracle" as a distant memory

Health care providers statewide are very worried — if not openly terrified — at the effects Pawlenty’s unallotment cuts will have on Minnesota, especially as Smilin’ Tim’s prior health care cuts in 2004 and 2005 had already torn gaping holes in the state’s health care structure. But of course kicking little old ladies out of wheelchairs is just the sort of thing to appeal to what’s left of the national Republican base — especially if the little old ladies happen not to be white.