Well, it's a start.

Gov. Mark Dayton announced Wednesday that the UCare health plan will contribute $30 million to the state treasury, a move designed to stanch the gusher of red ink that is drowning Minnesota's budget.

The contribution, which will be made July 1, amounts to less than 1 percent of the state's projected $5 billion deficit, but is aimed at one of the biggest elements of the budget: spending on health and human services.

Its size notwithstanding, Dayton praised UCare's decision in a prepared statement: "I applaud UCare's leadership in coming forward to make this contribution to the state as we face difficult fiscal choices. I call on the other health plans operating in our public insurance programs to follow UCare's example, to step up and be part of the solution."

Dayton has asked Human Services Commissioner Lucinda Jesson to approach other health plans providing health care insurance and ask for what he described as "comparable contributions," based on their earnings last year, earnings on government programs and cash reserves.

UCare is a nonprofit organization created by the University of Minnesota's medical school that provides coverage to 200,000 members in Minnesota and western Wisconsin, primarily through Medicare and state health care programs. It doesn't provide private commercial insurance coverage.

Announcing the contribution, UCare President Nancy Feldman called it "the right thing to do, especially in light of the state's severe budget deficit." No word yet from executives of other health plans. .