Dear Neighbors:
Even though the Legislature doesn’t convene the 2016 session until March, I’m down in Saint Paul frequently for meetings as a member of a pair of panels related to health care. With the coming session scheduled for just 10 weeks, it’s important to get a bulk of the work done ahead of time.
Back in August, I was appointed to serve on the Governor’s Task Force on Health Care Financing. This task force, proposed by Governor Dayton and passed during the 2015 legislative session, brings together a wide variety of health care experts to examine options for the future of our state’s health care programs, including MNsure and MinnesotaCare.
I’m a member of the task force’s Seamless Coverage and Market Sustainability Workgroup. This workgroup, one of three making up the task force, focuses on, among other items, smoothing “cliffs” (where people with small gains in income are forced from the comprehensive coverage provided by MinnesotaCare to private plans, often with very high deductibles), reducing “churn” (when citizens switch frequently back and forth between private and public plans often due to small income changes), and looking at funding alternatives for MNsure and MinnesotaCare.
We must continue to work to provide affordable, quality health care for all Minnesotans. This past session, legislative Republicans sought to eliminate MNsure, our state’s health insurance exchange, and MinnesotaCare, which provides affordable coverage for 100,000 working Minnesotans. These would have been the wrong approaches.
I think we should work on systematic reforms and innovations which provide more cost effective coverage while ensuring the programs are sustainable down the road. I’m happy to have this opportunity to contribute to this effort by serving on the task force. The task force’s report and recommendations are due to Gov. Dayton and members of the Legislature by January 15, 2016.
I invite you to follow its activities here: http://mn.gov/dhs/hcftf/
Additionally, I’m privileged to serve on the Legislative Health Care Workforce Commission. This panel, created by the 2014 Legislature, is charged with making recommendations to the Legislature addressing workforce issues, including: workforce shortages in the area of health care, the effectiveness of incentives to attract highly-skilled employees to the field, and solutions to barriers in the primary care workforce, including residency shortages and disparities in income between primary care and other providers.
You can take a look at materials from the commission meetings here: http://www.lcc.leg.mn/lhcwc/
I hope you are all enjoying fall so far. Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions, comments, or concerns.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Schultz
State Representative