Hot dish 05.06.24

By Josie Albertson-Grove

We’re now two weeks to the end of session, and we left off in the wee hours of Saturday morning with the passage of the health and human services omnibus bill in the Senate.

Competing statements about the bill from Republicans and the DFL reflect the usual divide: Republicans decry new mandates, while DFLers celebrate new protections.

“There are a lot of alarming inclusions in this bill that will do nothing but drive up the cost of healthcare in Minnesota,” said Sen. Paul Utke, R-Park Rapids, the top Republican on the Health and Human Services Committee. Utke objected in particular to provisions that let child care providers require their charges be vaccinated, and require insurance to cover gender-affirming care and abortion.

DFLers celebrated several inclusions, including $1 million in grants to address youth mental health, and parts of the Minnesota Debt Fairness Act carried by Sen Liz Boldon, DFL-Rochester, that would prevent medical debt being transferred to someone’s spouse and block providers from denying treatment over outstanding debt.

The bill also requires insurance companies to cover the cost of wigs for cancer-related hair loss — a provision carried by Sen. Kari Dziedzic, DFL-Minneapolis.

Notably not in the bill: a public insurance option that could be sold on the MNSure health insurance marketplace. The state Department of Commerce estimated it could cost up to $364 million to provide MinnesotaCare as one of the options for people who buy insurance on the exchange.

As of late Friday, both chambers had agreed to a set of projects to be funded by the Legacy Amendment sales tax revenue this year. Senate Legacy committee chair Sen. Foung Hawj, DFL-St. Paul, said in a statement he was happy to see the bill included provisions from both DFLers and Republicans. He noted money to address nitrates in groundwater and invasive carp, and funds to help lower-income Minnesotans participate in outdoor activities and rent the requisite gear.

CLASS: The family of a boy who was abused by a school resource officer is behind a provision in the education policy bill that would require parents to be notified when students are pulled out of class unscheduled, Reid Forgrave reported.

The former Clearwater County sheriff’s deputy has been convicted of abusing that boy and others at school and at a camp, but one family wanted to ensure other families don’t go through what they did.

“The core of the bill is to bring safety to students so people ask questions: ‘Why is that teacher taking that kid out of class?’” said Matt Singh, the father of one of the boys who was abused. “It puts the responsibility on parents, too. The school says your kid was taken out of class. So you talk with your child: ‘What’s going on?’ We were never given that opportunity. Nobody told us he was being taken out of class.”

A spokesperson for Education Minnesota said the union wanted more clarity in the bill on when a removal from class is considered unscheduled, such as when a reading interventionist pulls a student out of class for one-on-one help that might be planned part of the student’s day, but doesn’t always happen at a scheduled time.

Uber and Lyft have also been insistent that their drivers are independent contractors, so this seems like a good place to note that the independent contractor provision of the House labor, housing and transportation omnibus bill, passed last week, is mostly about subcontractors in construction who misclassify their employees as independent contractors, preventing them from getting paid overtime or being eligible for worker’s comp. During questioning from Republican legislators, DFLers have said that bill is not about ride-hail drivers.

OD AFTER JAIL: Minnesota’s jails are filled with people who have substance use disorder, but a state survey found less than half of county jails provide medication for opioid addiction, Jessie Van Berkel reported last week.

People in jail who have substance use disorders go through withdrawal, and when they get out their tolerance for drugs is low — but the disorder hasn’t been treated, so people often go back to using. One in five Minnesota who died of an overdose had been incarcerated in the past year. The first two weeks after release are particularly deadly.

Corrections officials, people in recovery and state researchers say there would be fewer overdoses and less recidivism if facilities provided the medications and ensured people leaving lockup had health insurance and access to treatment. But they say the cost and staffing shortages prevent many jails from providing the help.

DFL: Endorsing conventions in four congressional districts over the weekend put the DFL seal of approval on four candidates. Former prosecutor Rachel Bohman is the party’s pick for the First District, state Sen. Kelly Morrison, DFL-Deephaven, has the party endorsement to replace outgoing Rep. Dean Phillips in the Third, Rep. Betty McCollum will get another round in the St. Paul-centric Fourth and former state Rep. Jen Schultz will take another run at Rep. Pete Stauber for the Eighth.

WHERE’S WALZ:

Gov. Tim Walz will give remarks at American Indian Day at the Hill at 10 a.m. before a call with newly-appointed Greater Mankato Growth CEO Della Schmidt. At 1 p.m., Walz will speak at the pinning ceremony for Colonel Christina Bogojevic, the new leader of the Minnesota State Patrol and the first woman to hold that job.

Then at 4 p.m., he is set to speak at a children’s online safety event with Highlights Magazine and the Boys & Girls Club — part of a Google-funded program promoting Google-branded internet safety programs for children.

READING LIST

Keep us posted at hotdish@startribune.com.