Friends,
Happy St. Patrick's Day! We are now more than half way through the 2017 Legislative Session and we are delivering on the priorities of Minnesotans across the state. Read some of the highlights from the last week below and have a great weekend.
Bipartisan Health Insurance Reform Passes House
Minnesota’s health insurance market was thrown into disarray by Obamacare and MNsure, which resulted in skyrocketing premiums and lack of options for Minnesotans. Prior to Obamacare, Minnesota had a health insurance safety net program and it was a model for the nation. Today, Minnesota’s individual insurance market is one third as large and twice as sick as it was before Obamacare.
The Minnesota Premium Security Plan (HF5), which establishes a state-based reinsurance program, passed the House on a bipartisan vote of 78-53. This program is designed to stabilize the health insurance market and reduce premiums by mitigating the impact of high-risk individuals, or those who are the most sick. According to Minnesota Management and Budget, the proposal is estimated to reduce premiums by 17-18 percent.
Making real reform to health care in Minnesota began first with enacting premium relief and opening the market up to more providers with SF1. The second step was passing the Minnesota Premium Security Plan to help stabilize the individual market while lowering premiums by as much as 18 percent. The next step is to bring further reforms to put downward pressure on health care costs. That will be the focus of health care reform for the rest of this session.
Rep. Barr meeting with constituents in her office
Teacher Retention Reform Passes House
As Minnesotans, we want to give schools the power to keep the best teachers in the classroom. “Last In, First Out” puts new teachers on the chopping block, even if they are excellent teachers.
A bill (House File 1478) to eliminate Last-In, First-Out (LIFO) as the default requirement for how school districts and unions handle unrequested leaves of absence, passed the House this Thursday. Currently, state law sets LIFO as the default for handling unrequested leaves of absences, which essentially makes it so that LIFO is the unrequested leave of absence policy for most school districts in Minnesota.
This bill doesn’t require school districts or unions to use any new criteria in lay-off decisions. It simply removes the default position so school districts may have the ability to negotiate new criteria other than simply longevity when making personnel decisions. Those who teach our students should be judged by more than just how long they have been at a school. Performance should be taken into account. We cannot afford to have new, talented teachers pushed out of the profession due to lack of seniority if we want to close the achievement gap. I hope the Senate takes up this bill and that Governor Dayton will sign it.
Rep. Barr hearing a bill in committee
Top 10% Admission to U of M
In case you missed it last week, here is video of me explaining my bill to guarantee admission to those Minnesotans who finish in the top 10% of their high school graduating class to the University of Minnesota and other public four-year schools.
St. Patrick's Day Facts
- Every year, Chicago dyes the Chicago River green for their St. Patrick's Day Parade.
- The first St. Patrick's Day Parade took place in 1762 in New York City. Today, more than 200,000 participate in the parade and 3 million watch.
- Corned beef and cabbage is a traditional St. Patrick’s Day dish. In 2009, roughly 26.1 billion pounds of beef and 2.3 billion pounds of cabbage were produced in the United States.
Job Fairs
- March 30th there will be a jobs fair at the Eagan Civic Arena. Click here for more info.
- April 11th the South Metro Student Job Fair is taking place at Burnsville High School. Call Marcia Sexton at 952-707-2339 or msexton@isd191.org.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and ideas with me. You can schedule a time to meet with me in my office any time by calling me at 651-296-4192, or share your thoughts by emailing me at rep.regina.barr@house.mn.
Have a great weekend,
Regina