Minnesota Gov. Pawlenty Vetoes Health Care Expansion Bill

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Also Included In: Primary Care / General Practice
Article Date: 15 May 2008 - 7:00 PDT

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Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) on Tuesday vetoed legislation that would have expanded access to publicly-sponsored health coverage, saying the bill would not reduce health care costs or improve quality, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports (Duchschere, Minneapolis Star Tribune, 5/13).

On Monday, the House voted 83-50 to approve the measure, and the Senate voted 52-13 to approve the bill. The bill would have expanded eligibility requirements for MinnesotaCare, the state's insurance program for low-income residents, and would have established an outreach program to enroll those who qualify for the program. About 39,000 additional residents would have been eligible for coverage (Salisbury/Stassen-Berger, St. Paul Pioneer Press, 5/13). Providers also would have received financial incentives to provide residents "medical homes" (Wolfe, Minneapolis Star Tribune, 5/12).

The bill for the first time would have defined health coverage affordability as 10% of income for couples with incomes of $56,000 annually and 5% for couples with incomes of $28,000 annually. In addition, the bill would have funded a $47 million public health effort to encourage state residents to cut back on smoking and alcohol consumption, and to lose weight (St. Paul Pioneer Press, 5/13).

Pawlenty in his veto message wrote, "The state cannot afford to further expand subsidized health programs without certainty of reform that will control cost." However, Pawlenty said he supports some provisions of the bill, including the promotion of electronic health records, development of medical homes and changing the payment system for physicians. He wrote, "I hope we can move forward on these areas of common agreement" (Minneapolis Star Tribune, 5/13).

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