FREE SPEECH ZONE | Why the public option is needed in Minnesota

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Those who oppose including a public option in health care reform do so for a variety of reasons and motives. At the most obvious end, is the Republicans who simply wish to kill health care altogether, thus the public option becomes a leverage point for their opposition.  At the other end are those (mostly Democrats) who are frightened at the prospect of being labeled some sort of left wing liberals beholden to government intervention, when the next election rolls around this November. In regard to the Republicans, and others stonewalling reform, their suggestions are pretty clear, and disingenuous at best.  Often they offer spurious ideas which they know are ineffective or unacceptable – simple solutions like tort reform, and “letting insurance companies sell across state lines”.  Some Democrats have suggested the use of “exchanges or co-ops” in lieu of a public option.  In either case, the absence of a public option will be harmful to Minnesota consumers. Here’s why. To begin with, the market share of health insurance in our state is incredibly controlled almost exclusively between two companies now. Continue Reading

Health care veto override fails in House

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The Minnesota House of Representatives on Monday came up three votes short of overriding Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s veto of a bill that would provide a short-term fix to keep thousands of the poorest Minnesotans from being kicked off public health insurance beginning this month.The House vote was 86-47 to override Pawlenty’s veto of SF 2168, a bill that provides funding for the General Assistance Medical Care program for the next 18 months. To get the two-thirds majority, 90 votes were needed.When no Republicans joined 87 DFLers in voting to overturn Pawlenty’s veto, House Majority Leader Tony Sertich, DFL-Chisholm, changed his vote to “no” in a procedural move that allowed him to table the bill for possible reconsideration.What the result means is that, beginning today, automatic enrollment notices will start going out to tens of thousands of Minnesotans enrolled in the safety net public health insurance program to notify them that they will have to find other means of insuring their medical costs.Sertich’s vote and maneuver means that negotiations could continue with Pawlenty’s administration and House Republicans to find another solution.Pawlenty has said that many will be able to enroll in other public health programs such as MinnesotaCare, but DFLers say that many will slip through the cracks and that the additional burden on MinnesotaCare will bankrupt the Health Care Access Fund that pays for it.House Republicans initially supported the bill, which passed the body on a bipartisan 125-9 vote. But after Pawlenty’s veto, House Republican leaders said they were voting to send the bill to conference committee for improvements and continued negotiations with Pawlenty.When the Senate received the bill from the House, however, DFL leaders there voted to accept the House bill without changes, meaning no conference committee was needed. The bill went straight to Pawlenty, who vetoed it, saying it did not reform the GAMC program enough and did not control spiraling costs.   Continue Reading

Senate rebuffs Pawlenty’s health care veto

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The Minnesota Senate will meet in session Thursday morning with one big item on its potential agenda: overturning Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s veto of a bill that would save public health insurance for the poorest Minnesotans.The bill, SF 2168 from Sen. Linda Berglin, DFL-Minneapolis, would have modified the state’s General Assistance Medical Care and MinnesotaCare public health insurance programs to preserve insurance for 33,000 Minnesotans enrolled in the GAMC program.That program is scheduled to phase out by March 1 if nothing is done, because Pawlenty cut it last year in his unalottment actions to eliminate the state’s budget deficit. He maintains most of the people kicked off GAMC could move to MinnesotaCare or other programs.Pawlenty vetoed the bill, saying that it did not address cost issues with the program and did not represent significant reform, despite the fact that the Minnesota Hospital Association and Minnesota Medical Association had agreed to cuts in reimbursement through the program to help keep it solvent.DFLers have a veto-proof majority in the Senate, so today’s vote is not expected to be dramatic. But it moves the action to the House, where DFLers would have to convince three Republicans to join with them to overturn the veto.The bill passed with veto-proof majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives before going to Pawlenty, but House Republicans have said they will stand with their Governor to enforce his veto.DFL lawmakers have met with Pawlenty and his officials to try to hammer out an agreement before that vote would take place, possibly sometime next week.UPDATE: On a 45-21 party line vote, the Senate voted to overturn Pawlenty’s veto. Now it’s up to the House of Representatives. Continue Reading

FREE SPEECH ZONE | Massachusetts voters have no idea who REALLY won the Senate election

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Well, it is over. Scott Brown is a new Senator, so the assumption is that Brown is the big “winner” in this election. Yes, but he is not at the top of the heap. Maybe it is the Republicans? Good guess, but wrong again.  We do know who the losers are: it would be anyone in America who has the misfortune to fall ill without any (or adequate) health insurance.  But as to the winners, there you have to dig a bit deeper than the choices mentioned above. Continue Reading

FREE SPEECH ZONE | Who deserves health care? A personal experience.

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Recently I attended a greatly informative information meeting on the realities about, and need for, Universal Health Care. The meeting was facilitated by the Minnesota Universal Health Care CoalitionThe experience led me to recall my own personal history, which was published as a column in the January 20, 2010, edition of the Woodbury (MN) Bulletin. The column follows:Forty-five years ago this month my wife, not yet 22, was actively engaged in the very difficult work of dying. Our first child was not yet one year old. We lived in a tiny apartment in the small town in western North Dakota where I was teaching school.Barbara, who had kidney disease, was too weak to take care of her son; she was in the hospital about as much as she was at home. Continue Reading

FREE SPEECH ZONE | The REAL reasons Americans oppose health care reform

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Relax…this will not be more about the Health Care Bills now in Congress, which have been sliced, diced, vetted, digested, regurgitated, and pretty much beaten to death. Well, maybe not “death” as they lurch toward a final showdown. This is an attempt to understand why Americans – according to a variety of polls – now oppose health care reform, even as many dislike their present medical insurance, or more importantly, lack thereof. FREE SPEECH ZONE The Free Speech Zone offers a space for contributions from readers, without editing by the TC Daily Planet. This is an open forum for articles that otherwise might not find a place for publication, including news articles, opinion columns, announcements and even a few press releases.Right off, I can guarantee you that their opposition is absolutely, positively not because they object to what is in the Senate and/or House bills now struggling through Congress. Continue Reading

The Great Gaski; or, does Twila Brase still need to find a Democrat fretting about death panels?

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In today’s Mankato Free Press coverage of the Quist health care reform forum, staff reporter Mark Fischenich writes:

Quist, who promised to have details of his fiscal analysis of the bill on his Web site in the next five days, was joined by a Minnesota nurse who issued even more alarming warnings about the health-care reform bills before Congress.

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