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Home | Politically Connected | State Politics

Backed by House, 6 patients sue Pawlenty, state officials

Gov. Tim Pawlenty sliced the program's $5.3 million appropriation as part of a $2.7 billion emergency budget reduction in June. The nutrition cuts prompted a lawsuit that offers a glimpse into a program that serves some of the state's poorest residents.

By BAIRD HELGESON, Star Tribune

Last update: November 21, 2009 - 9:19 AM

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In July, a doctor cataloged 16 maladies that have left Frederick Becton living on government assistance.

At 65, Becton endures constant pain from a bad shoulder. Hepatitis C leaves him exhausted, and late-stage kidney disease tethers him to a dialysis machine three days a week.

For five years, Becton's doctor has considered his medical problems so severe that she prescribed a special diet, heavy on lean meats, vegetables and grains. To help with the costs, Becton has gotten $250 from a little-known state program geared to such patients.

Last month, Becton got a letter: No more grocery money from the state. Instead, the state has suggested he and the other 5,071 Minnesotans on the program scour local food shelves, apply for food stamps, or, for those with feeding tubes, Medical Assistance.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty sliced the program's $5.3 million appropriation as part of a $2.7 billion emergency budget reduction in June. The nutrition cuts prompted a lawsuit that offers a glimpse into a program that serves some of the state's poorest residents.

"It's going to be pretty tough," said Becton, who lives in public housing in downtown Minneapolis. "I went through a lot of humiliation to get it, and now it's gone."

The program covers only 11 special dietary conditions, including those with special protein requirements, lactose intolerance, dangerously high cholesterol, liver disease or women or are pregnant or nursing.

Dollars for diets

Each diet has a dollar value. Hypoglycemics got $30, while those with a menu of qualifying ailments received several hundred dollars per month. Statewide, the average monthly payout was $77.

Typically, recipients were elderly, blind or disabled and living on federal and state assistance. To tap extra food money, they needed to show a letter from a doctor saying the diet was necessary.

Filed earlier this month, the lawsuit paints a grim picture of those served by the program, which started in 1974 as part of a massive federal overhaul of the welfare program.

Forough Mahabady had kidney cancer, two hip replacements and has severe digestive problems.

Unable to work, the Hennepin County woman lives on $955 a month in federal aid plus $200 a month from the program to pay for her prescribed, high-protein diet.

Darlene Bullock, of Aitken County, is diabetic, had a stroke in 1993, heart bypass surgery in 2005 and a stent placed in her heart this year.

She receives food stamps and got $119 a month from the state to pay for her doctor-ordered dietary needs.

Injunction sought

"It's the bottom of the income spectrum," said Tom Pingatore, human services program manager for Hennepin County, which had about 1,775 people getting dietary aid. "They are a vulnerable group."

The cuts might have gone unnoticed if Mahabady, Bullock and four others hadn't filed suit against Pawlenty and other state officials to block the cuts. The DFL-led House is taking the rare move of writing a brief in support of the lawsuit, which claims Pawlenty broke the law and violated the state constitution with his cuts.

The lawsuit seeks a temporary injunction that would reinstate the benefits until the case is resolved.

Health and human services officials say they can't recall the dietary program ever being the subject of political ire or controversy.

The program was among 27 health and human services programs targeted by the cuts, known as unallotments.

"These were difficult decisions, but were necessary in order to balance the state budget during a time of unprecedented economic challenges," said Brian McClung, Pawlenty's deputy chief of staff. One factor, he said, was "what types of other resources might be available to the persons affected by unallotments."

Get food needs met elsewhere

In a Sept. 11 letter to human services workers, Charles Johnson, assistant commissioner for the state's Children and Family Services Administration, said there might be other places for those on the program to get their food needs met.

For instance, Medical Assistance might pay for supplements ingested with a feeding tube, taken for metabolic problems, dairy allergies and other conditions that interfere with a body's ability to absorb nutrition. People who get their food money cut might qualify for additional food stamps.

The program's clients are being directed to various low-income assistance programs, and social workers are steering them to 211 crisis hot line and area food shelves, Pingatore said.

But food shelves don't reliably stock the foods needed by those on special diets.

"We are left scratching our heads sometimes, trying to find people help," Pingatore said.

Baird Helgeson • 651-222-1288

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