To the editor:

As many of you know, our long term care nursing home, Oak Hills, has been experiencing financial struggles for a while now, as have many outstate LTC facilities, for various reasons. My dad has needed to be at a skilled nursing home facility since June 2022 and we were happy he could get in to Oak Hills here in New Ulm (after being on a waiting list) near where all five of his children live and where we can visit him regularly.

We need to keep our area nursing homes open (there are now 191 people on Oak Hills’ waiting list) and keep our hospital beds open for new patients (patients cannot always be transferred out of the hospital due to no nursing home beds available)! Our governor’s budget target for Health and Human Services is far below what is needed. Allocations are being discussed right now. Please write our governor and legislators and tell them to provide more dollars for rural nursing homes to prevent them from closing, and to vote YES for HF733 and SF780, but NO to more regulations in HF908 and SF1621.

Dianne Griebel Melzer

New Ulm