FLIP-FLOP ON MINNESOTACARE

 

FLIP:  MinnesotaCare provides coverage to the working poor whose employers do not offer such coverage.  It was passed with bipartisan support in the early 1990s.  As a candidate for the State Legislature, Tim Pawlenty said the following about MinnesotaCare:

 

“The real challenge is to provide access to health care for the working poor who do not receive health insurance from their employers.  In that regard, the MinnesotaCare program passed during the last legislative session was a step in the right direction.  It targets subsidies to allow uninsured individuals to purchase insurance on a sliding-fee basis, while leaving the private health care industry largely intact.”

(Eagan Sun-Current, October 7, 1992.)

 

FLOP:  As Governor, Pawlenty called the MinnesotaCare program “welfare health care.”  (Star Tribune, January 31, 2005.)  Governor Pawlenty, who kicked over 30,000 Minnesotans off of MinnesotaCare, suggested that they instead go on welfare if they cannot find a job with insurance benefits.  (Star Tribune, January 31, 2005.)

 

FLIP-FLOP ON

 PRESCRIPTION

 DRUGS

 

Tim Pawlenty recently got nice election-year headlines when he said he thought the poorest of the poor should be able to buy drugs at discounted prices.  When he had the opportunity to vote for a similar measure as a state legislator, however, Pawlenty voted “no.”  Legislator Pawlenty voted against an amendment which would have required drug manufacturers to provide Minnesota consumers with the same price discounts that manufacturers provide to the federal government when selling drugs through the Medical Assistance program.  Under the amendment, discounts of 15 to 25 percent would have been available to individual consumers without existing insurance coverage for prescription drugs.  (HF 1832, 5/10/01)  This vote tells us far better than his empty rhetoric how Tim Pawlenty acts and thinks when it’s not an election year.  Shame on the media for writing press releases for the governor given his lousy track record.

State's health coverage for kids is down

Number of those without access to care rose from 2001 to 2004, advocacy group says.

Dane Smith, Star Tribune

Minnesota is slipping in the percentage of children who have access to health care, according to a report released Wednesday by the Children's Defense Fund-Minnesota.

 

Although the state still probably ranks in the top five states for the percent of children covered, the number of uninsured grew from about 56,000 in 2001 to 68,000 in 2004, executive director Jim Koppel said.

 

Among children younger than 5, those without coverage grew from 4 to 7 percent during that period, the report showed. The uninsured percentage is significantly higher in outstate areas than in the Twin Cities area, reaching almost 10 percent in northeastern Minnesota.

 

The report blamed the increase in part on reductions in eligibility for the state's subsidized health-care programs and the fast-rising costs of health care coverage in the private sector.

 

The complexity of forms and red tape for subsidized programs is another factor, Koppel said. Yet another factor is recent cuts in outreach programs aimed at finding people who are eligible but unaware of programs.

 

State Sen. Linda Berglin, DFL-Minneapolis, said the Senate is pushing through legislation that would provide coverage to 15,000 uncovered Minnesotans, about half of them children, by removing barriers in the MinnesotaCare and Medical Assistance programs.

 

Other bills are aimed at increasing outreach efforts and streamlining the application. The Minnesota Care application is 12 pages long, Koppel said.

 

The report was drawn from statistics released earlier this year by the Minnesota Health Department that showed an increase in the uncovered population of adults and children.

 

Human Services Commissioner Kevin Goodno said Minnesota still ranks near the very top in the percentage of people who have health insurance, and the situation may have improved in the two years since 2004.

 

The Pawlenty administration favors simplifying the application and improving outreach, he said but not expanding coverage to illegal immigrants.

PawletyUnlugged

Facts about Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty