In many ways, state governments offer political solutions and conform to the same methods in getting similar results when presented with problems like those the federal government faces in times of economic crisis. The nation’s current budgetary issues with respect to financing healthcare reform are no exception.

In Minnesota, just as in the U.S. Senate, the effort is on for the majority lawmaking party — the Democrats — to work with the fiscal constraints imposed by the state’s Republican governor, Tim Pawlenty. GAMC^[1] coffers will be exhausted by next spring, and the safety net for the working poor in Minnesota will shift to a system partially dependent on federal matching funds — as Pawlenty has proposed shifting coverage to MinnesotaCare, a jointly funded federal-state program that puts pressure on the state to come up with its own funds to administer the program.

Problem is, many lawmakers are scrambling to fix that program out of concern of the unsustainability of the governor’s proposal. One state GOP lawmaker is taking a cue from U.S. Senators who want a reform bill passed, and is trying to garner broader support to do so — before there are no sustainable options for Minnesota’s eligible poor. Reacting to the Dems’ kneejerk responses to the governor’s plans, state Representative Matt Dean (Republican leader on the MN House Health Care and Human Services Finance Division) is gathering census data to obtain more accurate demographics on the state’s most eligible beneficiary population, taking a very fiscally responsible strategy whose goal is to streamline this safety net mode of care in the most economically feasible manner possible. | LINK

1. General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC) is a state-funded program for low-income adults, ages 21-64, who have no dependent children and who do not qualify for federally funded health care programs. [↩]

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