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State Representative Jim Davnie
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-0173
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HOUSE BRIEFS
Health care access
Access to affordable healthcare is critical for thousands of Minnesotans across the state. Preserving that access, for those individuals as well as a key strategy for managing health care costs, was a significant point of contention throughout the regular legislative session and the state government shutdown.
The additional revenue created by the budget agreement prevented the repeal of the new Early Medical Assistance (MA) program and ensured continued health care coverage for more than 140,000 Minnesotans, the final bill still cuts $1 billion from the HHS budget and makes a series of troubling changes to our public programs.
By maintaining the Early MA program, the final HHS budget bill, House File 25, protects comprehensive health care coverage for 105,000 of Minnesota’s poorest and vulnerable citizens. In addition, by rejecting the inadequately-funded Coordinated Care Delivery Systems model, the state will retain 20,000 private sector jobs and over $2 billion in state and federal health care funding.
In order to secure funding for the Early MA program, Governor Dayton was forced to make a series of concessions, including the creation of a defined contribution program within MinnesotaCare for childless adults above 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Guidelines. Although these individuals will receive a sliding-scale level of premium assistance, their out of pocket expenses are very likely to increase due to a lesser benefit set and a potentially very high deductible. A significant portion of the savings accounted for by this new program, which will start July 1, 2012, are derived due to the fact that 10 percent of the impacted enrollees can’t navigate the complexity of the private insurance system and end up uninsured.
Once implemented, the privatization of this portion of the MNCare program will last until 2014. At that time, the federal Affordable Care Act will require this population to move onto a similar, but more affordable, defined contribution plan.
There are no further income- or asset-related eligibility changes for the MA and Minnesota programs, but the bill does increase the copayment requirements for MA recipients. For example, contingent on federal approval, the copayment for a nonemergency visit to a hospital-based emergency room will increase from $3.50 to $20. In addition, the monthly cap on prescription drug copayments for will increase from $7 to $12. These changes are effective September 1, 2011.
Lastly, the bill contains a provision to move certain legal non-citizens from MA to MNCare, expands MA coverage to include dental therapists, reduces the benefit set offered under Emergency MA, and eliminates the auto renewal provision for MNCare recipients.
Later this summer, the Department of Human Services will be sending a letter to all health care program recipients outlining these changes.
I voted against the HHS budget bill, but it was signed into law on July 20th. I strongly believe that we can and must do better. For my part, I will continue to be a strong advocate for our communities’ core principles of economic fairness and protection of the more vulnerable members of our society.
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