Volume 6, Issue 8
February 26, 2021
Thoughts on Senate File 1
A weekly message from your Senator
Dear Constituents and Friends,
There have been many questions about the COVID-19 vaccine and availability, so this week we wanted to answer some frequently asked questions.
Q: Governor Walz said we will move onto the next priority group, but I am 65+ and have not received my vaccine yet. What is going on?
A: The priority groups will remain the same until at least 70% of Minnesotans aged 65+ are vaccinated. The goal is to reach this benchmark by the end of March. We anticipate that the state will receive increased vaccine doses, in the past several weeks our federal allocations have steadily increased. With new vaccines on the horizon, health officials are confident that this supply will continue to grow.
Q: I am a teacher and want to receive my vaccine but have not received it yet. When can I get the vaccine?
A: This week, Governor Walz announced a new community vaccine site at the Mall of America primarily focused on vaccinating educators and childcare workers. There will be 8,000 vaccine dosages allocated to this vaccination site.
Q: Why does the Vaccine Connector need to know my personal information such as ethnicity, sexuality, and gender?
A: The state is trying to demographic information to ensure that the vaccine disbursement is equitable. We understand that people may find these questions invasive, and you have the option to click the option for “prefer not to say.”
Q: You have posted COVID-19 vaccine locations, but I cannot find any open appointment options. What is going on?
A: We understand that finding the vaccine is not as easy as 1-2-3. The demand for the vaccine is higher than the supply that the state of Minnesota currently has. We recommend that people sign up in the Vaccine Connector and look for appointment options on the MDH vaccine locator. If you are willing to drive outside of the Twin Cities, there are vaccine appointments at Thrifty White.
While Thrifty White locations are far away, they still vaccine appointments available. If you cannot or are not willing to drive outside of the Twin Cities, we would recommend looking into your primary care provider or one of the following pharmacies – Walmart, Walgreens, Hy-Vee, Sam’s Club. Some primary care providers are only vaccinating individuals 70+ right now, and we understand that might not be an option for everyone. When it comes to the pharmacies, we have seen vaccine appointments added daily. There are Facebook groups dedicated to finding the vaccine for individuals 65+ where members of the group will post when there are more appointments available at a pharmacy. If you are trying to sign up for an appointment with Hy-Vee, you should know that there is a pharmacy option and an Events option. It looks like the Events have more COVID-19 vaccine openings than the Hy-Vee pharmacy right now. We understand that this is frustrating and difficult to find a vaccine.
Q: I am not 65+ – when will I get my vaccine?
A: After we get through the current priority group, vaccine eligibility will expand to people with specific high-risk health conditions and targeted essential workers. Ideally this would start at the end of March or beginning of April based on benchmark projections.
High-risk health conditions include Sickle cell disease, Down Syndrome, active cancer treatment, immunocompromised form organ transplant, oxygen-dependent chronic lung and heart conditions (COPD and CHF). Targeted essential workers include food processing plant workers.
Later this spring, eligibility will continue to expand to groups such as those 16-64 with one or more other high-risk medical conditions, essential frontline workers, people aged 50 years and over living in multi-generational housing, and so on.
More details on these groups and the vaccination timeline can be found on the Who’s Getting Vaccinated page of the Minnesota COVID-19 response website.
Moving on to new eligibility groups does not mean that people in early priority groups won’t have access to vaccines anymore. For the past several weeks our federal allocations have steadily increased. With new vaccines on the horizon, health officials are confident that this supply will continue to grow, allowing new groups to be added to prioritization through the spring, and the general public being eligible this summer.
All Minnesotans who have not been vaccinated can sign up for the COVID-19 Vaccine Connector to stay updated on eligibility for the COVID-19 vaccine and connect to local vaccine opportunities when they become available.
COVID-19 vaccine for Veterans
If you are a Veteran, you could be eligible to receive the vaccine at the Minneapolis VA. Here is the current eligibility for the COVID-19 vaccine at the VA.
Who is eligible to get vaccinated now by Minneapolis VA:
All enrolled Veterans 75 or older who receive care within the Minneapolis VA Health Care System.
Enrolled Veterans who are frontline essential workers, 18 or older, who receive care within the Minneapolis VA Health Care System. This includes the following Veterans:
- First responders (e.g., firefighters and police)
- Corrections officers
- Food and agriculture workers
- U.S. Postal Service workers
- Manufacturing workers
- Grocery store workers
- Public transit workers
- Those who work in the education sector (e.g., teachers and support)
- Childcare workers
- Healthcare workers
Community Coordinators:
This week Governor Walz showcased the State’s partnership with over 30 community-based organizations who work as COVID-19 Community Coordinators. Coordinators work directly with communities hit hardest by COVID-19, including communities of color, American Indian communities, LGBTQ+ communities, and Minnesotans with disabilities. In addition to connecting them to vaccines and other COVID-19 information, they continue to help community members find critical resources to address the impacts of COVID-19, such as employment, food access, housing, childcare, and legal rights.
Visit MDH’s COVID-19 Community Coordinators page to learn more or find a coordinator near you.
Senate File 1
On Thursday, we debated SF 1 on the Senate Floor. This piece of legislation would open up businesses without the necessary safety protections for workers. We all want our businesses to fully open as soon as possible, but we need to make sure that when we do that, there are basic, reasonable safety measures in place to offer protections to the workers in these businesses. Although we are making great strides in defeating COVID-19, we are still in the midst of a public health crisis.
I offered an amendment that would have protected workers from retaliation when asking for a safe workplace. Many other amendments were offered to include workers compensation and leave protections to ensure worker safety provisions would be included with the bill, but none of those amendments moved forward. I remain committed to working with my colleagues and the administration to open back safely.
MNsure special enrollment period
We are currently in MNsure’s COVID-19 special enrollment period. This enrollment period is open to uninsured Minnesotans or those not currently enrolled through MNsure.
| Plan Selection Date | Coverage Start Date* |
| February 16 through February 28 | March 1st |
| March | April 1st |
| April | May 1st |
| May 1 through March 17 | June 1st |
Compare plans on MNsure by premium, co-pay, deductible, covered prescriptions and more.
Most Minnesotans qualify for financial assistance to help cover the cost of insurance.
Free enrollment assistance is available with Mnsure-certified broker or navigator. For general questions, reach out to MNsure’s Contact Center: 651-539-2099 (855-366-7873 outside the Twin Cities).
Budget forecast
Today the 2022 – 2023 state budget forecast was released, The outlook was better than expected, with a $1.6 billion surplus. However, we should continue to be cautious, this surplus would not have happened without federal stimulus that came after the last economic forecast. Many of these were one-time resources and we are still in uncertain times.
See the full February forecast here.
Sincerely,
Melisa