GOP leader wants to end MinnesotaCare
Days after saying they want to cut taxes and still spend money on key priorities, a key Republican in the Minnesota House is floating a proposal to end a popular health care program for Minnesota’s working poor.
Pressured by their own party to return a $1.9 billion budget surplus to taxpayers, GOP leaders are looking for ways to do that while pursuing their agenda.
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Liz Doyle, associate director of TakeAction Minnesota, a non-profit group that supports public health care programs, said Dean’s plan would be bad for MinnesotaCare participants. It would land them in more expensive and potentially less comprehensive coverage, she said.
“Our concern is that it would end the guarantee of affordable coverage that MinnesotaCare currently provides and subject low-income working families to potentially much higher health care costs on the private market,” Doyle said.
TakeAction Minnesota played a big role in making MinnesotaCare the state’s so-called basic health plan under the Affordable Care Act. Aside from some benefit improvements and adding more people to the program, incorporating MinnesotaCare in the state’s implementation of the law effectively allowed Minnesota to tap some federal money to help pay for it.
