Lead image by Susan Lesch/Wikipedia Commons CC 4.0

By Etta Bucholtz — Contributor

Hennepin County Medical Center, a massive marvel and tribute to community, diversity, equity and excellence in the heart of Minneapolis, is facing a genuine financial crisis. The crisis is not one of mismanagement or embezzlement, it is one created by an exceptional institution doing its job: caring for every person who comes to them for help. They do not turn you away; they care for you with dignity and respect, with translators if necessary, and with compassion. 

HCMC is not just any hospital, either. It is Minnesota’s busiest Level 1 adult and pediatric trauma center.  It is a safety-net hospital, one that accepts patients regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay. It is and has been a training site for more than half of Minnesota’s practicing physicians. Its burn unit and hyperbaric chamber are both only one of two such units in the state, providing unique services to all Minnesota residents.  A lesser-known but still significant loss: HCMC is home to the MN EHR (Electronic Health Records) Consortium, a database that confidentially compiles the health records of nearly every Minnesotan and tracks conditions like cancer and depression down to the neighborhood level. No equivalent system exists anywhere else in the United States. 

The ripple effects of a closure would extend well beyond the Twin Cities. HCMC is a workforce engine for rural Minnesota — if you want trauma surgeons in Northern Minnesota, psychiatrists in greater Minnesota or addiction treatment outside the metro, the state must invest where physicians are trained.  HCMC trains and has trained over half of Minnesota physicians, and just last month closed two of its Minneapolis clinics specializing in geriatric care, forcing 700 elderly patients to seek care elsewhere in an already overwhelmed medical landscape.  Just as the over 65 demographic is rapidly increasing, we are closing geriatric specialty clinics!

So why is such an essential and outstanding institution facing closure? Enter the federal government’s recent policies. Before The Big Beautiful Bill, before “punishing Minnesota” for standing up to ICE by withholding Congress-appropriated funds and before squandering taxpayer resources on unnecessary and costly wars, our federal government and leaders believed we all deserve health care. Our government assisted states by sharing tax money through programs like Medicare and Medicaid. Programs like WIC (Women, Infants and Children) and SNAP provided food aid which assisted in providing healthy and adequate food for citizens,which are essential for long term health.  The Big Beautiful Bill reduced and, in some cases, stopped funding for health care and health care related programs altogether.

Now we are facing the same issue that hospitals across the state and the country are facing: closure.  Closure that leaves communities without any healthcare options or places for physicians to practice medicine.  It leaves people who are severely injured or in need of rapid medical assistance to die for simple lack of care. We are being asked to provide health care for our citizens and to repair and reconstruct the tattered medical safety net. For our state legislature, the place to start is funding for HCMC!  This facility is Minnesota’s essential safety net, our medical training north star and a beacon of hope for our citizens!

After showing that we care for our neighbors by standing up against ICE, being honored with the Nobel Peace Prize and appearing nationally as the centerpiece of this year’s No Kings movement, we must show that these honors are not accidental. We need to show that we believe in providing excellent training and quality healthcare for all Minnesotans regardless of their status, place of residence or ability to pay.  Healthcare is a right that must be provided, supported and protected.

If the federal government won’t help, we will figure it out ourselves,and the place to start is with our legislature seeing to it that this critical institution is funded. This must be before we fund more roads or support a University that does not stand up for our values and cannot choose sides between a murdered alumnus, Alex Pretti, and the murderers who shot him in the back while they held him down.  The mission of HCMC is clear:  “ to partner with the community, patients and their families to ensure access to outstanding care for everyone, while improving health and wellness through teaching, patient and community education and research.”  As citizens, we can’t make institutional changes for ourselves.   Our legislature must prioritize the funding of HCMC before we lose one more program or service from this premier, essential institution.  

HCMC is a critical patient. We will need time to design a sustainable funding strategy, but we can’t let the patient die while we are thinking!

It is essential that our legislature acts and acts quickly. We are already losing important functions, and without a legislative solution by May 18, HCMC will begin closing in June.