Editorial: Veto shouldn't be last word on health care

Sixteen years ago, Minnesota legislators and a visionary Republican governor overcame partisan mistrust and policy complexity to put this state among the nation's leaders in the effort to secure good, affordable health care for its citizens.

That standing has slipped over the years. This was to be the year in which Minnesota's health care edge was regained. We think it still can and should be -- despite Gov. Tim Pawlenty's veto of the Legislature's health care reform bill late Tuesday. Time remains for one more try at putting health care reform on this year's list of accomplishments.

The bill that Pawlenty vetoed doesn't offer as much positive change as its designers, the members of a Pawlenty-appointed task force, sought earlier this year. They've scaled back its ambitions, in large measure in response to Republican critics and in hope of securing Pawlenty's support.

Nevertheless, the bill still takes a number of worthwhile steps in the direction of improved quality at lower cost. The governor's veto message acknowledged the bill's virtues: "improved transparency of price and quality, advancement of e-prescribing and electronic health records, development of medical homes, care coordination of chronic disease, and the beginning of payment reform to pay doctors for evidence-based, high-quality health care."

But Pawlenty said he could not accept the bill because it extends MinnesotaCare eligibility to an estimated 40,000 more people, at a cost he pegged at $141 million per year by 2011.

Many experts say that insuring all Minnesotans eventually would bring about a total cost savings, not an increase, and also would improve the health of people who are uninsured or underinsured today.

But strip the MinnesotaCare expansion from the bill, and it would still be legislation worth enacting. It wouldn't be the landmark achievement of 1992, when MinnesotaCare was created and universal coverage seemed in sight. But it would make a difference for the better.

Pawlenty's veto missive ends with an expression of desire to "move forward on these areas of common agreement." Capitol cynics scoffed yesterday, claiming that the real Republican game is to stop any bill that would give the DFL a bragging point in the fall campaign. DFLers should give Pawlenty a chance to prove the cynics wrong.