A key Minnesota House committee approved a major health and human services budget bill Thursday that seeks to cut $1.6 billion from state spending, delivering on part of a Republican pledge to erase the state's projected $5 billion deficit through cuts.
The 11-8 party-line vote came after warnings from DFLers that the Republican document offered no certainty of actual cuts and savings or of their impact on people and medical programs.
"We really don't know what this bill will do," said Rep. Tina Liebling, DFL-Rochester. "There have been no hearings on many aspects of this bill, so we're voting on guesswork."
Chief sponsor Rep. Jim Abeler, R-Anoka, said the bill is aimed at "getting Minnesota to be better and smarter in a time of a terrible budget crisis" in how it cares for poor, sick, aged and disabled people.
"If we keep doing the same thing, we'll get the same result," he argued. "It's simple. We can't afford to do that anymore."
Under the bill, about $10.7 billion in state money would be spent over the next two years for health and human services, up about $500 million from the previous biennium. But that is about 16 percent below the $12.4 billion the state would spend if there is no change in law, based on increases in costs and the number of people qualifying for state services.
Until Thursday, the bill offered no across-the-board rate cuts to health care providers. But in an amendment, Abeler tacked on a 7.1 percent rate cut for most hospitals, generating about $100 million.
That was because he found out that his projected $483 million savings from cutting programs to keep the aged and disabled out of institutional care actually would save only about $373 million.
Overall, the budget counts on about $1.2 billion in expected savings in program changes that commissioners of human and finance say are so vague they can't be calculated.
DFLers chided Abeler for a measure that anticipates $300 million in savings through a controversial "global waiver" from federal Medicaid regulations. Not only is it likely to be denied, they said, but if it were approved and misses the $300 million target, the bill requires the human services commissioner to figure out how to cut state payments to health care providers, a legislative duty.
One amendment approved Thursday allows nursing homes to raise rates for private-pay residents by 2 percent a year for four years, instead of the unlimited increases allowed in the bill. At present, homes generally may not charge the 30 percent of residents who pay for their own care any more than those covered by the state-federal Medicaid program.
Most of about 70 amendments to be offered were rejected. Some were withdrawn, including one by Liebling that would have required the state to buy a Megamillions lottery ticket and guess that the state would win $304 million -- a proposal that -- like "this budget -- is based on a hope and a prayer."
A Senate committee may approve a health and human services bill on Friday. It could be two weeks before both houses act on the bills.
Warren Wolfe • 612-673-7253
