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| MINNESOTA SENATE PASSES HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES OMNIBUS BUDGET BILL | ||||||||||||
(St. Paul) -- The Minnesota Senate passed the Health and Human Services Omnibus Budget Bill today following a rigorous floor debate. The Senate Republicans’ proposal offers a 6 percent increase from current Health and Human Services spending, and a 12 percent decrease in spending over the February forecast.
The measure is largely predicated on efforts to reform state-subsidized health care delivery systems. “The state’s budget deficit is a strong signal in itself that the legislature needs to place its focus on reform from government regulation of the health care industry to a more incentive-based approach by implementing consumer-friendly policies like tax deductions or health savings accounts,” said Senator David Hann (R-Eden Prairie), the bill’s chief author. “I certainly do not believe that any meaningful reform or change will be achieved by implementing more intrusive government policies into the health care industry.”
Notable provisions of the bill include:
• Significantly reforms the way public health care is carried out in Minnesota.
• Establishes a public health care system that is affordable and sustainable, and limits the growth of public health care.
• Recognizes the ability of everyone, even low income Minnesotans, to make decisions about their own health care.
• Calls into question and reduces the involvement of the federal government in Minnesota’s health care system.
• Limits cuts to nursing facilities and the disabled, while reaching the target of $1.6 billion.
Senator Hann added: “With the implementation of the Healthy Minnesota Defined Contribution Program and the reinstatement of the GAMC coordinated care delivery system, the Senate was able to achieve significant and sustainable health care reform, while allowing access to health care for much of the population.”
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