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Home | Politically Connected | State Politics

Pawlenty's health care proposal has a ring familiar to McCain's

Some legislators believe the governor's idea of incentives for the uninsured to buy policies will help attract his signature.

By WARREN WOLFE, Star Tribune

Last update: April 30, 2008 - 8:26 PM

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A day after presidential contender John McCain proposed driving down health-care costs through tax credits to help those without insurance buy policies, Gov. Tim Pawlenty -- believed high on the Republican's list of possible running mates -- floated a similar idea.

At a meeting Wednesday with legislators seeking to overhaul Minnesota's health-care system, the governor suggested their bill should include health savings accounts and tax credits for buying private health insurance.

The credits would go to individuals and small employers as alternatives to expanding current public programs, such as MinnesotaCare, the program for low-income workers, said Pawlenty's spokesman, Brian McClung.

In many ways, the Minnesota issue mirrors the presidential debate over how to control health-care costs -- Sen. McCain seeking expanded coverage through market-based competition, while Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama favor government subsidies to help lower-income people afford insurance premiums.

Pawlenty also proposed offering health saving accounts to state employees, an idea that "won't fly very far" with state unions, said Jim Monroe, executive director of the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees. "Right now, there are way too many problems with health plans with health savings accounts and high deductibles," he said.

Helping get agreement?

Pawlenty told legislators that he supports many elements of their efforts. They include creating a system to measure and make public the cost and quality of health care, paying doctors more for patients' health and conducting a statewide program to reduce smoking and obesity.

But legislators disagreed over how much the governor's 14 pages of suggestions have helped the process.

"I'm very optimistic. I think we're moving much closer to a bill that we can pass and the governor will sign," said Rep. Tom Huntley, DFL-Duluth, co-chairman of the conference committee weighing differences between health-care bills passed by the House and Senate.

But the committee's other leader, Sen. Linda Berglin, DFL-Minneapolis, offered a far more cautious take on the governor's suggestions.

"An awful lot is pretty vague," she said. "A tax credit sounds fine but won't really help people much. There was an earlier bill with that proposal costing $20 million, but when I raised the question, the governor didn't suggest how we might pay for it."

Instead of the legislative vision of a new Health Care Transformation Commission appointed by the governor and the Legislature to oversee changes in the state's health system, the governor would give that authority to his commissioners of human services and health.

That would concentrate authority in the Pawlenty administration "and eliminate legislative oversight that I think many members of the Legislature want," Berglin said.

Huntley agreed that the conference committee "will have a lot of questions and will not agree with the governor on everything. But there's a lot I like in what the governor suggested."

The DFL-controlled Legislature proposes to expand MinnesotaCare as a way to get closer to universal health-care coverage in Minnesota. The governor has said the state cannot afford that now. Both sides said Wednesday that separate negotiations to balance the state budget must be completed before the idea of adding as many as 47,000 people to MinnesotaCare can be addressed.

"The DFL health-care reform bill as written is flawed," McClung said. "However, Governor Pawlenty remains hopeful a compromise solution can be reached that will reform health care to improve quality and hold down escalating costs that are severely impacting many Minnesota families."

Warren Wolfe • 612-673-7253

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