As part of his proposal, the Governor has proposed extending the tax on health care providers, due to sunset soon, which has provided funding for MinnesotaCare. This valuable program allows low-income working Minnesotans to have affordable health insurance. In Minnesota, we value having a healthy population, and access to care they can afford is a critical part of this. In a broader discussion, we simply cannot ignore the costs that uninsured, uncompensated care adds to everyone’s health care expenses. We should be looking at ways to expand health care for more Minnesotans, not take it away.
Health Care
Thursday we concluded work in the Health and Human Services Committee with a discussion of that subject’s budget bill. While the bill protects services for people with disabilities by preventing an imminent seven percent cut, it has several problematic areas and other shortcomings. It fails to take meaningful action to protect seniors in care facilities, it doesn’t do enough to make child care more affordable, and it would prevent future implementation of the MinnesotaCare buy-in proposal. The MinnesotaCare buy-in plan would allow Minnesotans to purchase quality health insurance at a cost about 28 percent less than plans available on the private market.
Everyone deserves affordable, accessible health care and we shouldn’t be creating more barriers toward that goal.
Higher Education Underfunded
This House majority unveiled their Higher Education bill last week. Unfortunately, as college tuition and student debt continue to rise, the Republican package offers no relief to Minnesotans and their families as they struggle with this burden.
Instead, the bill earmarks $5 million to a single state university campus for a single program. This could better be used to provide funding to all campuses, spread out across Minnesota, to buy down tuition and make college more affordable. We can, and must, do better to ensure Minnesotans can acquire the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in our economy.
Congratulations, Bulldogs!
On Wednesday, we had the honor of welcoming UMD men’s hockey head coach Scott Sandelin and athletic director Josh Berlo to the House Chamber where we congratulated them on their 2018 NCAA national championship. Gov. Dayton even declared Wednesday as UMD Men’s Hockey National Champions Day.
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