04/06/2026
❓It’s a simple question: Who deserves care? If every human gets sick or hurt in their lifetime, who deserves treatment?
This is the fundamental question we need to ask when considering the risk to hospitals within our state. Especially HCMC. Policy Researcher Alec Williams at the Minnesota Reformer recently wrote:
“HCMC is broke because it takes care of people nobody else will, picking up the pieces for a broken system. HCMC cares for 115,000 patients a year, offering the only 24/7 emergency hyperbaric chamber in Minnesota, one of the busiest burn units in the country, and our most important teaching hospital.
When public needs go unmet, they don’t go away, they just cause bigger problems for all of us.
HCMC provided more than $100 million in free care last year alone — double what it was in 2020. If that stops, those patients and that cost will flood hospitals from Wisconsin to North Dakota.
Just like public schools, roads, or running water, public hospitals aren’t about charity, they are for self-preservation and mutual benefit.
Meanwhile, the Mayo Clinic made $1.5 billion in profit in 2025. Closed six rural clinics the same year. Spent 0.7% of its revenue on charity care — less than a fifth of the national average.
Mayo has $16 billion in assets and calls itself a nonprofit.
HCMC lost $9.5 million taking care of the rest of us.
Here's where it stands: the leading proposal at the Legislature is expanding the Hennepin County sales tax — the same tax that paid for Target Field — from 0.15% to 1%. That money would go to keeping HCMC's doors open.
Is it a perfect solution? No. A local sales tax means working families in Hennepin County foot the bill for a hospital that serves the whole state. But the alternative is letting this essential hospital collapse entirely. That's worse.
The Legislature needs to act this session. Call your state rep today. Tell them to invest in our basic needs. Tell them to invest in a stronger, sustainable HCMC.”
