Lawmakers have until midnight Monday to decide on a two-year budget for Minnesota. Who will be prioritized and who will be hurt by the decisions made?
The health care budget is one major sign of who is valued. The Republican legislative majorities this year pushed for cuts of almost $500 million to the Health and Human Services budget. This included programs to make sure families and children have health care and services for the most vulnerable. Cutting $500 million would destabilize the public programs that provide health coverage for one in five Minnesotans. And this is at a time when Minnesota has a budget surplus, federal uncertainty threatens these same programs, and the Legislature has found nearly $900 million to prop up insurance companies.
The health care budget also threatens MinnesotaCare, one of the features that makes Minnesota's health care system stand out nationally. A proposal to get rid of MNsure could effectively destroy MinnesotaCare by making it impossible for people to sign up. The federal health exchange will not work with MinnesotaCare, threatening coverage for 100,000 Minnesotans.
Why are Republican legislators doing this? For tax cuts, of course - such as giving $150 million to just 1,100 people by cutting the estate tax.
I guess we can see who matters to them.
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Jonathan Maurer-Jones
Duluth
