Greetings from the Capitol!
We are concluding another busy week at the Capitol where a health insurance exchange, taxes and unionization continue making headlines.
HEALTH INSURANCE EXCHANGE ADVANCES
A bill to create a health insurance exchange passed the House and Senate this week, despite bipartisan opposition in each body. The three most commonly expressed points of opposition include:
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Choice: Will we be able to keep our doctor?
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Cost: Will we have to pay more?
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Privacy: Will our personal health care information be kept private?
The legislation which passed does nothing to guarantee better health care, lower insurance premiums, increase coverage or create savings in the health care system. To the contrary, the exchange is a program which will cost us hundreds of millions of dollars just to set up. It adds a 3.5-percent premium tax, creates a massive layer of bureaucracy and subjects our personal data to government inspection.
While proponents claim massive savings in health care as a result of this bill, it will in fact increase premiums for many Minnesotans by anywhere from 13 to 29 percent and this has not been disputed. It is a bad deal for Minnesotans.
Here is a brief video of me speaking about this issue on the House floor.
As I noted in a recent email, there are still many questions which remain unanswered about this legislation which claims to be the largest change to our health care system in 50 years. In fact, Gov. Mark Dayton called this bill “a big gamble” earlier this week in a radio interview.
TAXES
We may have taken a step in the right direction this week when the governor backed down from his proposal to tax business-to-business transactions. He drew sharp criticism from throughout Minnesota for his plan and how it would kill jobs all across the state.
A number of other tax increases remain in the legislative process, however. A transportation bill which would put $3 billion more funding toward roads and transit projects over the next four years recently was heard in a House committee this week. Tax increases and new fees would help pay for the additional spending. They include:
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9.5 cents per gallon gasoline tax increase
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$10 increase of tab fees, plus .125 percent of the base value of the vehicle
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Expansion of the annual metropolitan wheelage tax to statewide; counties that opt into the wheelage tax may set the amount, rather than the tax being set by statute at $5
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General sales tax extended to include auto repair and auto repair warranty purchases.
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Increase in the current ¼ of 1 percent sales tax for transit in metro area to ¾ of 1 percent.
On Wednesday, the Minnesota House Taxes Committee debated legislation that would increase taxes on beer, wine and alcohol. This proposal would increase taxes by nearly 350 percent. The current tax on a barrel of beer is $4.60, but this legislation would increase it to $16.17 (Click here
to see these details in Section 3). A vote was not taken, which means it could appear in a more comprehensive taxes or liquor proposal later this session.
UNIONIZATION
An effort to unionize an estimated 9,000 daycare providers passed the House Early Childhood Committee this week, despite significant opposition. In addition, this week the Health and Human Services Policy Committee heard a bill to allow elections that could unionize an estimated 12,000 people who work as personal care attendants. This is another initiative that raises significant concerns about increases in costs and limiting choice in health care.
What is interesting about this proposal is that unionization is typically a result of demand from any particular sector. In this instance, there has been virtually no demand from child care providers, who are independent business owners. Rather, the majority of them oppose forced unionization since it would increase costs and limit access.
Instead of parents being the employer of child care providers, this proposal would make the state the employer of record. This should be concerning to parents across Minnesota.
Have a great weekend!
Tara