Their health care proposal calls for freeing up competition among health insurers and tapping into state coffers - $285 million in the health care access fund, $500 million out of the Minnesota Human Services Department - to fund health care tax credits and tax deductions.
by T.W. Budig
ECM capitol reporter
House Republicans look to the private sector rather than the government for solutions in affordable health care coverage.
Their health care proposal calls for freeing up competition among
health insurers and tapping into state coffers - $285 million in the
health care access fund, $500 million out of the Minnesota Human
Services Department - to fund health care tax credits and tax
deductions.
The health care access fund helps pay for the state's health care program, MinnesotaCare.
Rep.
Jim Abeler, R-Anoka, lead Republican on health care issues, helps
present the House Republican health care agenda on Tuesday (Dec. 11) at
the Capitol.
"We want to empower individuals," said
Rep. Jim Abeler, R-Anoka, House Health Care and Human Services Finance
Committee lead Republican. "We don't want to empower institutions," he
said.
Oppose mandates
Republicans oppose mandates requiring everyone to have health care
insurance - they don't work, argued House Minority Leader Marty
Seifert, R-Marshall - and want to change state law to allow the
purchase of any approved health care plan in the country.
"The time has come to let people really shop," said Abeler. Consumers
have been "insulated" from making real health care decisions, Abeler
argued.
In the area of privacy and security, House Republicans are pushing for
the use of e-health care cards containing a person's medical history
that can be carried in a wallet or purse.
They also argue for establishing a tort court, a legal body designed to
handle medical lawsuits and one House Republicans believe would
ultimately reduce the use of defensive medicine - procedures done more
out of fear of lawsuit than medical need.
That would lower costs, they argue.
The Republicans also want to see, whenever possible, Minnesotans
currently enrolled in state health care plans shifted onto the private
sector plans.
The caucus has numerous other recommendations.
Working for months
Rep. Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis, House Health and Human Services
Committee chairman, noted that committees have been working on health
care issues over past months.
"I am disappointed that House Republican leadership has come out
swinging before a plan is even finalized - and without any real
alternative that is something other than tinkering around the edges,"
he said.
House Republicans are simply trying to derail the pending plan before
it goes out into the public, Thissen charged. Some of the Republican
ideas, though, do make sense, he noted.
And they are already included in the overall reform.
Sen. Linda Berglin, DFL-Minneapolis, Senate Health and Human Services
Budge Committee chair, was also critical of the House Republican
proposal.
Getting rid of protection laws
To open up the marketplace would mean getting rid of state consumer protection laws, argued Berglin.
Anyway, for-profit health insurance plans have not been shown to lower health care costs in other states, she said.
"I don't believe that Minnesotans think their health care costs will be
lowered if we support giving more of those dollars to Wall Street
traders," said Berglin.
"What Minnesotans have told me over the years is that they want a
provider and health insurance company that cares about their overall
wellness, not high executive salaries," she said.
(Photo by T.W. Budig, ECM Capitol Reporter)
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