Minnesota’s governor, Republican Tim Pawlenty, doesn’t want it. Hospitals which fear state-funded capitated sums to regroup for potentially expensive care delivery do. And, the approximately 75,000 low income and working poor who risk losing subsidized acute care really haven’t been asked about what they think. I’m talking about eleventh-hour legislation to shore up Minnesota’s Medicaid program — MN Medical Assistance.

Governor Pawlenty has vowed to veto recently passed Democrat-controlled House legislation to cut Minnesota’s contribution to publicly funded care by $164M. Saying the the cuts aren’t adequate, Pawlenty held a press conference yesterday — in which he accused House Dems’ actions to hold out for Medicaid expansion, among other provisions, as a means to subsidizing care for the poor and indigent under the threatened GAMC redux — “pathetic”.

“The bill’s going to be vetoed the moment it hits my desk,” [Pawlenty] said at a news conference. “It adds hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions of dollars, to future state deficits. It raises taxes when we are trying to reduce spending on health care.”

With less than twenty days left in the legislative session, this impasse could result in a scenario in which the revamped GAMC legislation will stand — if only enough hospitals participate. Even if that’s a safe bet, there is no guarantee that previous GAMC beneficiaries will enjoy the same level of benefit before discussions of cuts to state-subsidized healthcare care took place. | LINK

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