<NEWS RELEASE>

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar announced that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has agreed to continue health care protection for about 18,000 Minnesotans who receive coverage under Minnesota's innovative Medicaid program, called MinnesotaCare. 

Sen. Klobuchar, along with others, pushed for HHS to grant a waiver that would maintain funding and health coverage for 18,000 Minnesotans in lieu of a threatened a cut in federal funding for MinnesotaCare.  The deal provides a waiver through June 2011.
 
"This will allow Minnesota families to continue to get affordable health insurance,” said Klobuchar.  "Minnesota has an innovative, successful program to provide Medicaid coverage to lower-income families.  It's a smart investment, and I'm pleased that the federal agency has responded to our requests that these families continue with their health care coverage.”
 
More than $135 million in federal MinnesotaCare funding over three years would have been lost due to a disagreement between MinnesotaCare officials and the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
 
In September, Klobuchar wrote to HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt and urged him to grant the waiver so 18,000 Minnesotans would not lose their health care coverage.  The letter also called for a short-term extension of the waiver to ensure that the expired waiver be continued until new waiver terms were negotiated.  She also introduced legislation in the Senate that would have extended the expired waiver until April 2009, hoping that an agreement could be reached in the interim.